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Indra Lal Roy
‐
Member of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
Talgarth Street
Hammersmith, London
W14 9DJ
United Kingdom Colet Court Preparatory School
Hammersmith Road
London
W6 7JP
United Kingdom
Place of death
Carvin, France
Date of time spent in Britain
1909–18
About
Indra Lal Roy was born in Calcutta to father Piera Lal Roy and mother Lolita. He attended Colet Court Preparatory School, the feeder school for St Paul's, from the age of 10 and then went on to St Paul's School, London. Roy played rugby and was captain of swimming. At St Paul's, he was in the school cadet force from September 1914 until March 1917, when he left to join the Royal Flying Corps.
Despite wearing glasses, he was declared fit for military service in the First World War. Roy was appointed to a temporary commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps in July 1917. He was posted to 56 Squadron in October 1917 in France.
On 6 November 1917 Roy crashed his aircraft and returned to Britain for more training. On 19 June 1918 he returned to France, where he joined Captain George McElroy's 40 Squadron. He proved himself an excellent fighter pilot, but on 22 July 1918, when on observation patrol over the trenches, he was shot down over Carvin, France.
In September 1918 Roy was posthumously awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. He is buried in Estevelles communal cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France.
First World War, 1917–18
Mead, A. Hugh, A Miraculous Draught of Fishes: A History of St Paul's School (London: James & James, 1990)
Shores, Christopher F., Franks, Norman and Guest, Russell, Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces, 1915–1920 (London: Grub Street, 1990)
Singh, Ranbir, Indian Air Force: In the Footsteps of Our Legends (Noida: Book Mates Publishers, 1998)
Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)
Visram, Rozina, 'Roy, Indra Lal (1898–1918)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/73273]
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Records, Maidenhead, Berkshire
War Office Records, WO 339/115198, and Air Office Records, AIR 1/1222/204/5/2634/40 Sqdn, National Archives, Kew, UK
Image credit
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
