Squadron Leader Patrick Gifford DFC

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Reference WMO/173953

Address:

St Ninian's Episcopal Church

St Andrew's Road

Castle Douglas

DG7 1EX

Scotland

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Status: On original site
Type: Non freestanding
Location: Internal
Setting: Inside a building - public/private
Description: Board/Plaque/ Tablet
Materials:
  • Stone Marble
Lettering: Incised
Conflicts:
  • Second World War (1939-1945)
About the memorial: Nowy headed white marble tablet with gold painted incised inscription. Patrick Gifford was by all accounts everyone’s idea of a fighter pilot. Educated at Melrose, Sedburgh and Edinburgh university, qualified solicitor, Procurator Fiscal, Depute Clerk of the Peace, Secretary of the local NFU and former member of the town council. He was also an all round sportsman involved in tennis, cricket and rugby also an excellent skier and rifle shot and he was well known for driving high speed sports cars between Castle Douglas and Edinburgh! He is credited with shooting down the first German plane over Britain on 16th October 1939 while flying his Mark 1 Spitfire from RAF Turnhouse and was awarded the DFC for this and a later combat. He was shot down and killed (although his body was not recovered) on 16th May 1940 over Flanders in his Hurricane. His logbook is on display in the Scottish United Services Museum in Edinburgh. Gillespie, Gifford and Brown are still a prominent firm of solicitors in Dumfries and Galloway.
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TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ AND/ IN LOVING MEMORY OF/ HELENE ALMA/ WIFE OF PATRICK GIFFORD/ SOLICITOR - CASTLE DOUGLAS/ WHO DIED 7TH FEBRUARY 1949/ AND OF/ SQUADRON LEADER/ PATRICK GIFFORD, JR., D.F.C./ SOLICITOR - THEIR ONLY SON/ KILLED IN ACTION/ OVER FLANDERS 16TH MAY 1940

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