Robert Camac Sterling

Pilot Officer Robert Camac Sterling was the only member of his RAF 149 Squadron crew killed when a BF110 attacked their Wellington on 23rd July 1940.

Pilot Officer

Robert Camac Sterling

77981

Pilot Officer Robert Camac Sterling of Belfast was an observer with RAF 149 (East India) Squadron when he took part in a raid over the town of Gotha, Germany in July 1940.

Pilot Officer Robert Camac Sterling (77981) served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. He was the son of David Colston Sterling and Jean Smyth Sterling of Belfast.

He died on 23rd July 1940 aged 22 years old. At the time he was an Observer with RAF 149 (East India) Squadron. At 2117hrs, Sterling’s crew took off from RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk in Vickers Wellington T2459. On the raid on Gotha, Germany, a Luftwaffe BF110 night-fighter attacked the RAF plane killing Sterling. The rest of the crew returned safely to the United Kingdom.

Robert Camac Sterling’s grave is in Section B2, Grave 294 of Dundonald Cemetery, Dundonald, Co. Down. His headstone bears the inscription:

In my father’s house are man mansions.