Jack with his wife Marjorie and daughter Jackie

Photograph at the head of this page: Jack with his mother and his daughter Jackie on a sunny summer’s day in a hayfield at the family farm in Bedfordshire.

The RAF Pathfinders Archive is greatly privileged to have been given the original manuscript of Jack Skingley’s poem OUR HEROES. It was written on the headed notepaper of the Regent Palace Hotel, a favourite haunt of aircrew on leave in London

Above: first page of the manuscript of the poem

OUR HEROES

by Flight Lieutenant Jack Skingley, DFC

Yonder star alive with  merry light

Appears from  Earth to be inanimate,

Yet think you not that in that distant sphere,

Live people much the same as here?

Do they know pain as we who suffer now,

Are their aims small as ours, which show

No wish to rise to greater heights

As Time strides on and the Recorder writes?

Look there!

The sun has thrust his rays,

To cap rock’s majesty in growing blaze

While down below to mortal  life it brings

A stealing glow – and things,

Which in the shadow of the eve

Gained magnitude,  now die to leave

The thought that yester took but little joy from Life

When man can face the growing strife

Now prevalent in this troubled world

By honouring a Flag unfurl’d.

Those soldiers who paraded in the Past

Fought war and left Death’s aftermath,

Their ghosts now stand with Youth to guide their feet,

To make it easier when the drummers beat

And Last Post sends its poignant prayer

Oh God,  receive these Heroes in Thy Care.

Oh God,  I pray that it may be

That when our nation’s history

Stands recorded in Truth’s clear light

No blot appears to mar the sight

Of noble sacrifice by those who tried,

With Hope and Loyalty allied,

To stop a Monster’s greed for power

And put an end to War for ever.

Their loyalty unites in tempered band

True friendship proffered with unstinting hand.

If theirs to die the clasp is strong

The greater sacrifice, the better bond.

In vision clear as to their destiny

These men will fight for Right unceasingly,

So charge your cups

And stand in prideful  pose

To drink a toast to Victory and to Those

Who counted not the price for Conquest paid,

Unfaltered in their purpose firmly made,

To rid the World of horror and of vice,

They gave their lives, what Greater Sacrifice!

I give you ‘Our Heroes’

Copyright the Estate of Jack Skingley

About the Poem

The poem is undated; however, it is believed to have been written in tribute to Jack’s best friend Wing Commander Eric Woods, DFC and bar, who was killed on 16 December 1943 off the Greek coast when flying his spitfire. Jack and Eric had served together in the Reigate Police Force before the war. Eric was the godfather of Jack’s little daughter Jackie.

Newspaper cuttings on Eric Woods, preserved by the Skingley family.

It is also thought that the poem was written to be read to an audience, perhaps at a special dinner or occasion, because of the way in which it ends, asking people to stand up and drink a toast to the memory of “OUR HEROES”. 

Last page of poem, initialled “JS”.

The Loss of the Edwards Crew

Seven months after the loss of Eric Woods, Jack went missing with the Edwards Crew in July 1944. Remains of the crew or their aircraft were never discovered, and consequently it is thought that they were shot down over the sea, possibly just off the French coast.

Extract from Bomber Command Losses – 20/21.7.44
Lancaster III PA979 OF – R. Op Courtrai. T/O 2319 Coningsby with orders to bomb railway yards. Lost without trace. All are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Eric and Jack are commemorated on the Surrey Constabulary memorial; their names are on the right, separated only by four lines. The memorial can be found at Surrey Police Headquarters, Mount Browne, Guildford.

We are most grateful to Jack’s daughter, Jackie Maude, and to Jack’s other descendants, for donating OUR HEROES to the Archive; it is a wonderful link to the history of our Path Finder Force.

In memory of Jack and his devoted son, Ross Skingley, who died on 21 August 2023.

Marjorie, Jack’s wife, with Ross and Jackie, 1946.

All photographs courtesy of the Skingley family.