Roland (Monty) Burton
Encyclopedia
Flight Lieutenant Roland Louise Ernest Burton AFC and Bar (known as Monty) Burton was born on May 18, 1918 and died in France in 1999.

Monty Burton became the first man to fly from London to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 in under 24 hours, when with his navigator Flight Lieutenant Don Gannon he won the 1953 London to Christchurch air race
1953 London to Christchurch air race
The Last Great Air Race was long, from London to Christchurch and took place in 1953 after Christchurch took the decision to declare their airport as International in 1950.-Race description:...

 in an English Electric Canberra
English Electric Canberra
The English Electric Canberra is a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers through the 1950s. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft in 1957...

 jet bomber in 1953, winning the Britannia Trophy
Britannia Trophy
The Britannia Trophy is a British award presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviaton during the previous year....

.

Monty grew up in Buenos Aires where his father worked in oil prospecting and then in London where he was sent to school. He was apprenticed to an engineering firm but the war gave him the opportunity to fly with the RAF. Part of his training was with the U.S. Army Air Corps, and he was subsequently an instructor on the Mosquitoes.

Afterwards he worked with the RAF Photo Reconnaissance Unit. Monty piloted the Canberra on intelligence and surveillance missions and in 1952 when large areas of East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...

 and The Wash
The Wash
The Wash is the square-mouthed bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in the United Kingdom...

 were flooded, he took some of the first aerial pictures which enabled an assessment of the scale of countermeasures needed to control the disaster. For this work he was awarded the Air Force Cross
Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)
The Air Force Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom Armed Forces, and formerly also to officers of the other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying, though not in active operations against the enemy"...

.

R.L.E.Burton retired from the RAF as a Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...

 in 1958 and joined a private aerial survey company, Hunting Surveys.

Monty retired to France where he died and is survived by 2 daughters and a son (Alison, Jocelyn and Michael). Monty's middle child Jocelyn Burton
Jocelyn Burton
Jocelyn Burton was born in Wales in 1946 and is the daughter of the famous Flight Lieutenant Roland Burton. Jocelyn intended to read modern languages at Cambridge, but at a late stage decided to train as a silversmith at Sir John Cass College in London where she studied under Jack Stapley. In 1967...

is still working in London as a successful Silver and Goldsmith.

External links

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