Cartwright, Louis Richard Conway
Richard Cartwright was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1911. He was educated in Canada and at King’s College, London. After taking his degree in London he returned to Canada, where he became in 1934 private secretary to the Prime Minister of British Columbia. In 1935 he went to South Africa, where he worked for a time as reporter and sub-editor on the Rand Daily Mail. He returned to this country and served until the outbreak of this war on the Radio Advertising Executive of the International Broadcasting Company. With the coming of the war he joined the R.A.F., and after service in this country was posted to India, where he lost his life in an aeroplane accident last August. Richard Cartwright was not an easy man to know. There was much of himself that he held deliberately in reserve, but his occasional impression of aloofness was deceptive. He was in anything he undertook immensely thorough. He had a mind well balanced, just and wise. He was generous and effortlessly honest. Above all he had courage, humour and gentleness. It is hard to accept the apparent pointlessness and cruelty which takes away so full a promise. After the war he would have been a maker and builder of that new commonwealth about which he thought and to which he looked forward with so steady and undeviating a determination. His Canadian background gave him a freshness of outlook and a directness of approach which in New Delhi were both startling and welcome; his mind had been disciplined and roughened by experience. He was reaching out to a maturity of action in his chosen field which was not to be granted to him. But if he had to die, perhaps that quick and clean way on active service is what he would have asked. Press cutting in King’s College Archives, unattributed and undated.
Biographical
| Surname(s) | Cartwright |
|---|---|
| First name(s) | Louis Richard Conway |
| Date of birth | 14 January 1911 |
| Family details | Son of Dr. Conway Caartwright, M.D., and Annie Dora Cartwright, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. |
| Previous education | California, US; Royal Military School |
| College | King's College London and/or King's College London Hospital |
| Dates at college | 1930-32 |
| Dept / course | Journalism |
| Military unit | Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 194 Sqdn. |
| Service number | 85185 |
| War / conflict | World War Two (1939-1945) |
| Date of death | 27/08/1943 |
| Age at death | 33 |
| Rank at death | Squadron Leader |
| Cause of death | Killed in flying accident |
| Burial place | Delhi War Cemetery. |
| Commemoration(s) | King’ s College Chapel; Canada at War Virtual Memorial |
| Notes | 10 Killed in Air Crash in India: Army and R.A.F. Officers: New Delhi, Aug. 30, 1943: High Army Officers were among the 10 persons killed and two injured when an R.A.F. transport aeroplane crashed in India on Friday. The names of those killed are given here officially today as:- Major General T. G. G. Heywood, C.B., O.B.E., Brigadier H. P. Radley, C.I.E., M.C., Squadron Leader R. C. Cartwright R.A.F., Squadron Leader C. Metcalf R.A.D., Pilot Officer K. Brookman R.A.F., Flight Sergeant William Clayton Walsh, R.C.A.F., Sergeant Leonard Yealland R.A.F., Mr. Robert Trend of the United States Office of War Information in Calcutta and two Indians. Those injured were Flight Lieutenant R. D. Williamson R.A.A.F, and Flying Officer G. L. Bruce R.A.F.. The Times 1 August 1943. |
| Sources | King’ s College London Archives; Commonwealth War Graves Commission: The Times |