Elgin fighter pilot died just days before VE Day

VE Day came just too late for one young pilot from Elgin who failed to return from a mission over Nazi Germany.

John Edward Fraser lost his life just a fortnight before the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945. Widely known as ‘Jock’, the Flight Sergeant was aged only 22.

As the nation gears up to mark the 80th anniversary of the conflict’s close, here are a few details about his short life.

Jock had been a high-achieving student at Elgin Academy, winning the Dux Medal.

He joined the RAF in 1943 and, after completing basic training at Cranwell in Lincolnshire, was selected as a potential pilot.

Flight training often took place abroad in order to avoid contact with the Luftwaffe.

Jock was sent to No7 Air School in Kroonstad, South Africa.

After initially learning how to handle a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he was graded as a Group 1 trainee then, in late 1943, he joined 33 Squadron and began flying Spitfires.

Following D-Day in June 1944, the squadron was based first in France, then Belgium, as support for the advancing Allied ground troops.

Having transitioned from Spitfires to the new and faster Hawker Tempest Mark V planes, its patrols began to fly deep into Germany itself.

Jock’s pilot logbook still survives, providing a record of each mission.

Some of the comments contained within reveal his youthful thirst for adventure.

These include “pretty boring trip”, and “hope something going to happen soon”.

February 25, 1945, was a day when Jock got his wish.

Jock was amongst eight Tempest pilots who encountered 15 Messerschmitt Bf 109s.

A “wizard dogfight” ensued.

Jock accounted for one of the four enemy planes downed that day, while the squadron also lost four of its own.

His logbook ends just under two months later with a short entry in someone else’s handwriting.

Simply and starkly, it states: “Killed in Action 24.4.45”.

Jock is buried in the Becklingen war cemetery, sited about a mile outside a village in north Germany that bears the same name.

He’s also commemorated on the New Elgin war memorial.

A short walk away from the monument lives Isobel King, who’s 94-years old and the last member of the family who knew Jock.

She has fond memories of her cousin and can still quote his service number even after 80 years.

Jock’s logbook, plus his medals and letters home are now part of the Elgin Museum collection. They can be viewed by contacting the venue in advance.

Meanwhile, other Second World War memorabilia can currently be seen in the entrance lobby at Elgin Library.

Museum volunteers Jenny Cook, Mary Shand and Stewart Halkett researched and prepared the display in preparation for the 80th anniversary of VE Day and to illustrate the changes that the war brought to everyday life.

As well as petrol, clothes, and soap, food items such as meat, butter, sugar, cheese, eggs, and tea were all subject to rationing.

Stewart said: “You look at the amounts and we’d probably consume in a single day what they had to make last a week.

“People back then had to rely much more on growing things in their gardens.

In addition to extracts from the Northern Scot and photographs from the time, the display also includes wartime items such as a women’s handbag with a special compartment to store a gas mask.

The display can be viewed at Elgin Library every day except Sunday.