Anthony Hastings Bassett

This story and photos are shared with the Trust with kind permission from Mavis Williams, Researcher; Tony Fleming, second cousin of Anthony Bassett; Elaine Kelly, cousin-in-law of Anthony Bassett; David Kelly, Anthony Bassett's first cousin once removed; and Anthony's immediate family, particularly Anthony's niece, Jennifer Macleod (née Bassett)

Anthony (Tony) Hastings Bassett was born 20 May 1923, his birth registered in the Reading, Berkshire Registration District, the son of Henry & Violet Muriel Bassett (née Fleming), who had married in Omagh, Ireland in the June quarter of 1915. The Fleming family were very well known and respected in Omagh, with Tony's grandfather and great grandfather both being medical doctors in the town, and benefactors of a number of public amenities.

Their first child, Terence (Terry) Bassett was born on the 23rd of February 1916 in Reading, Berkshire, their second child, Brian A. Bassett, was born in June 1921 and Anthony Hastings Bassett was born as above in 1923. Then in March 1932 Patricia (Patsy) M. Bassett was born completing the family.

We see the family on the 1921 census which was taken on the 19th of June 1921. They were living at 282, Wokingham Road, Reading, Berkshire (the building is now converted into flats or apartments). Henry Bassett had been born in Islington, London and was a Professor of Chemistry at the University College, London Road, Reading.

Anthony Bassett attended Crossfields School in Reading where he excelled at both academic work and sport including cricket, hockey and athletics. He was described as tenacious and consistent in whatever he undertook, with a zest for life and a sensitive spirit.

We see the family again in the 1939 National Register, which was taken on the 29th of September 1939, living at the same adress. Anthony's father continued his work as a professor of chemistry and his mother had taken on the role of a Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) Ambulance driver. Anthony was still at school at this point.

He joined the Home Guard in 1940, then the Reading University Air Cadets before enlisting in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve where he served in 885 Squadron, HMS Daedalus, Fleet Air Arm. He was made a Temporary Sub-Lieutenant on the 20th of May 1943 and he was to find himself on the 6th of June 1944 in the thick of the fighting. 885 Squadron, part of 34 Reconnaissance Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force, was part of a pool of squadrons assigned to spot the fire of naval bombardment ships.

On D-Day he was flying Seafire Mk.III MF533. He was one of two Fleet Air Arm casualties that day, when he was shot down and crashed near Hermanville-sur-Mer, Calvados. Anthony's mother, Muriel (Aunt Dolly), wrote to Tony Fleming's father to tell him that Anthony had been killed. She enclosed a photo of the crash site and on the back of the photo, seen below, she wrote: "Initial burial site of Tony Bassett next to his downed Supermarine Seafire on D-Day, June 6th 1944 in France". His grave can be seen in the middle of the photo, marked with a shattered piece of the plane's propeller.

Initial burial site of Tony Bassett, besides his downed Seafire

Tony Fleming's father served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and was stationed to the UK from 1942, as a flying instructor and then on ops piloting Lancaster bombers in early 1945. He kept a diary from May 1942 until he returned to New Zealand in Janury 1946 and he wrote this about receiving the letter from Muriel. "My other letter was from Aunt Dolly & contained a heart-break, a tiny photo of some wreckage & a prop-blade marking her son Tony's last resting place. He was killed by flac, apparently, shot down on June 7th or 8th. Dolly was not informed until 6 weeks later. Her letter is heartbreaking. She stayed with George [one of her brothers] for a while & in Sept. had a holiday in Devon which is helping her back to life but how she must feel! How any mothers must feel! What a curse are wars!"

Anthony Bassett's first cousin, Desmond Kelly, also served in the Fleet Air Arm and talked about Tony's death in an autobiography he wrote in the 2000's: "An Irish Immmigrant's Story".

"Shortly after the invasion, I had some news which I shall never get over. I was brought up with a cousin named Tony. We played together for many summers as we grew up. In 1942, he joined the air force as a Spitfire pilot. At first, the flying exhilarated him and he had the same feelings as expressed in the following poem written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in 1941:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

After facing the enemy in the air, Tony soon became quite fatalistic, and could not see how he could survive. The flights were dangerous, with enemy aircraft firing very close. He was shot down and killed on D-Day, 1944. I was devastated, and went down to Reading to see his mother. At almost the same time, my cousin Dick French, with whom I had spent the summer of 1936, was killed over Berlin. He had done his thirty missions, and had volunteered to be a pathfinder. It was a sad time of my life."

He was later re-interred in Hermanville War Cemetery with the personal inscription of "Whatever hope is yours, was my life also" added at the bottom. Anthony's mother, Muriel, was able to visit his grave after the war.

The Londonderry Sentinel, dated the 1st of April 1948, tells us that a memorial tablet was unveiled in Omagh Church to remember Sub-Lt. Anthony Bassett and was unveiled by his father, Henry Bassett.

Source:  Kenneth Allen - Creative commons copyright

 

The Bassett family would lose other members during the war. Cousin Dick was killed flying Lancasters and Tony Fleming's mother lost a brother, Bernard, killed in Sidi Rezegh, Libya and another cousin in Africa. It shows how the war took an incredible toll on families across the globe.