Born 29 October 1921 John Brightwell attended New Plymouth Boys’ High School from 1935-1938. In 1938 he joined the school’s Cadet Battalion as Lance Corporal, in A Company, No. 2 Platoon under Officer in Command, Major V. E Kerr. 

After passing University Entrance in 1938 he left school to join the staff at the Taranaki Daily News. He was with the Motorcycle Platoon of the Taranaki Regiment before joining the Air Force in 1942, after a correspondence training course.

John left New Zealand for Canada at the end of 1942 gaining his wings. As a sergeant he entered an additional navigation course at Prince Edward Island. He was posted to Vancouver Island where he piloted bombers on reconnaissance work along the Canadian Pacific Coast. In 1944 he went to England and Scotland to the Beaufighters of Coastal Command. His operation work was attacking the convoys for Norway and the shipping in the Norwegian fiords.

On Saturday 14th April 1945 John was in a handpicked group for a Coastal Command Strike against shipping in Jossingfjord, Norway. In his Beaufighter NT888, he took off at 1309 as part of a wing strike made up of torpedo and rocket carrying aircraft, accompanied by a Mustang fighter escort and a Warwick carrying an airborne lifeboat. 

They entered a very narrow fiord at 480km/h. John had been chosen to fly in ahead, locate the shipping and report back to the squadron. The force carried out a successful attack, approaching the target from inland but when the squadron left the coast for home, John’s fellow pilots presumed he or his navigator had been wounded, or that the plane had been damaged, as upon climbing from the fjord it was seen to turn suddenly straight up in the air, colliding with one of his squadron above and crashing into the sea. 

Aircraft circled the spot for about an hour but only a fuel tank was seen to surface and neither John nor his crewman were seen to escape. A sad end at only 23 years of age.

John is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey United Kingdom.

Lest we forget!