Wilbur Washington Acton was born on the 23 December 1915 in Ohio, to William A Acton and Irene E Acton.

A 1941 newspaper report mentioned that "Disregarding the fate of his friend, Bee Acton, of Wichita, Kan., has signed up for a year's service ferrying bomber and fighter planes from Canada to England [sic]. Acton, a commercial pilot, joined up shortly after his friend, Jim Wright, also of Wichita, was reported killed when a submarine sank the ship on which he was returning [sic] from England."

He had two contracts of service for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during the Second World War working from the 16 May 1941 – 15 May 1942 and the 12 August 1943 – 8 July 1944.

During his service he was one of those ATA members tasked with ferrying planes from factories to RAF airfields. His prior background of working in airplane sales for Dave Peterson Charter Services in Kansas, as well as 360 hours of flight time on Beechcraft F17D prepared him well for his role in the ATA.

This capability is reflected in a description of him from one of his ATA peers: ‘... a keen pilot competent to fly all types of single engine and light and medium twin aircraft. Proved to be a good type of officer and his behaviour was quite satisfactory’.

Whilst in the ATA Wilbur earnt two nicknames ‘Wilberforce’ and ‘Bee’.

On the 8 July 1944 Wilbur was involved in a mid-air collision, when the Anson he was flying was struck by an Oxford piloted by Flt Lt Bernard N Phillips and passenger Sqn Ldr William A Law. All three men died in this collision however the incident was classed as an accident, and no one was held responsible.

The accident report says "Whilst the Anson was flying just below the cloud base an Oxford aircraft, piloted by an RAF pilot, came out of the cloud and struck the tail plane of the Anson. Both aircraft crashed in a field and were destroyed, all three occupants being killed."

The inscription on his headstone is taken from Tennyson's poem 'Crossing the bar':

'I hope to meet my pilot Face to face When I have crost the bar'

Source: https://www.cwgc.org/stories/stories