Wartime pilot honoured for saving village

A YOUNG wartime Spitfire pilot is to be honoured for sacrificing his life to prevent his doomed plane crashing into a street of tightly packed houses.

Carlisle Everiss could have saved himself by baling out of the stricken plane as it plunged towards the village of Cowie in Stirlingshire, but he stayed at the controls - saving the village but sentencing himself to death.

Seconds from hitting the rows of miners’ houses, Mr Everiss made a last-ditch effort to gain altitude and managed to pull away from the housing. Moments later, the plane went into a tailspin and crashed into railway sidings at Cowie colliery, bursting into flames.

Now Everiss, pilot officer 41318 with the Royal New Zealand Airforce, will be honoured in the former pit village where his action saved hundreds of lives.

His name will be included on a memorial commemorating Kiwi airmen who died in Scotland during the Second World War. It will be unveiled by the New Zealand Society in Scotland at the Museum of Flight in East Lothian on 5 May.

On 2 October - the 61st anniversary of the tragedy - a memorial service will be held at the spot where he died.

Yesterday, Peter Leslie, the chairman of the New Zealand Society in Scotland, said it was right to recognise the bravery of the young flier. "His decision saved the lives of countless miners and their families," he said.

Mr Everiss was one of two pilots returning from a familiarisation sortie when he ran into trouble. His Spitfire stalled as it passed over the village on its way back to the former RAF base at Grangemouth, where many foreign pilots trained.

The second, more senior, pilot realised that Mr Everiss’s plane was about to hit the homes and may have gestured to him to pull his nose up. In complying, the 26-year-old pilot would have known he was triggering an uncontrollable spin, destroying any chance of throwing back his canopy and baling out.

He was pulled from the wreckage seconds before the plane exploded, but, as people gathered near the burning wreck, a magazine caught fire and live ammunition started firing off in all directions. A priest gave the dying Mr Everiss the last rites, and the young pilot was buried in a war grave at Grandsable cemetery in Grangemouth.

For nearly 40 years, little was known of the New Zealander, a hero in Cowie. Then, in 1979, a village resident, John Craig, visited New Zealand to trace the pilot’s family.

Mr Craig met Mr Everiss’s brother-in-law, Charlie Hammond, who lent him a photograph of Mr Everiss in uniform.

The remains of the pit sidings where the plane crashed now lie under the greens of Cowie Bowling Club. A portrait was commissioned from the loaned photograph and hung in the clubhouse, yards from the scene of the tragedy.

The artist titled it "Carlisle Everiss - The Face of Courage".