Gentleman of the Shade – Minions of the Moon

The True Story of Edward Bagot Bomber Pilot

By Vincent Burke

Published by Big Sky Publishing

RRP $34.99 in paperback | ISBN 9781923300002

Vincent Burke took on the task of writing the story of Edward Bagot at the behest of Bagot’s school friend Jim Bowen. His main source material were the diaries Bagot had left behind and which finally found their way to Australia after the war had ended.

Edward Bagot’s story echoes the stories of other young Australian men keen to take part in the war, his sole aim was to become  a pilot.

He joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) midway during the war and was successful in his ambition to become a pilot, eventually becoming a member of Bomber Command and a Pathfinder pilot as an Australian member of No. 156 Squadron. Pathfinder squadrons were elite World War II target-marking units. 

What impresses me about this book is the first hand account of life in Britain during the war.

Edward’s life was a surprisingly social one. It seems his connection to an aristocratic family helped with unexpected invitations. He was a kinsman of Lord Bagot of Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire, a distinguished family that can trace its origins back centuries. Edward visited Blithfield Hall at the invitation of Lord Bagot, to whom he had written.

We are lucky that Edward was a keen diarist. He began his diary at the age of fifteen. This invaluable and irreplaceable record of his life, together with the letters he sent to his family from England, have provided author Vincent Burke with the tools he needed to tell Edward’s story and to honour his short life.

This book offers readers a truly unique perspective on the life of a Bomber Command pilot and an unexpected insight into England in wartime.

It’s no surprise his parents struggled to come to terms with his loss in a bombing raid in January 1944. At the time he was captain of a Lancaster bomber detailed to attack Brunswick, Germany. For a long time they clung to the hope he might have survived as a prisoner of war. But it was not to be.

His was a life cut short by war along with so many others

War Memorial record

This is more than a military history. It is a social history of the times. Edward’s thoughts, ideas and observations reach across the distance of years in an unexpected and intimate way. I urge you to read this book, not for its account of wartime bombing raids but for its insight into a world at war.