Pieter Cammaerts

Sergeant Pieter Emile Gerald Cammaerts was an English airman of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve who died during the Second World War.
He was born in 1919, in Watford, the son of Émile Leon and Helen Tita Cammaerts (née Braun). His father was a Belgian poet, while his mother was a Shakespearean actress and daughter of the opera singer Marie Brema. Cammaerts followed into his mother's profession, and trained at RADA, leaving in 1938 with the Shakespeare Schools Prize.Fergusson, Maggie (2012), Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse After the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force, and said of his decision:
I'm not the only one. There are many married men crowding the recruiting offices who understand still less than I do. Besides, I'm not choosing this job because it's dangerous — between you and me and the bedpost, I'm scared stiff — but it's the best means of avoiding the tedious waiting in muddy trenches. I could never stand that. The air is clean at least, and if the end comes it will be short and good.Message, Issues 1-14, p. 46.
Cammaerts, an observer with 101 Squadron, died on 30 March 1941, when his Bristol Blenheim (serial T2281) overshot the runway at RAF St Eval while returning from an anti-shipping raid on Brest. The aircraft's pilot, Sergeant Kiddle, was also killed, while the weapons operator, Sergeant Kniveton, was wounded.Warner, Graham (2005), The Bristol Blenheim: A Complete History, p. 303. His brother, Francis, was a committed pacifist who, spurred by Pieter's death, joined the Special Operations Executive and organised resistance groups in occupied France.
He is buried in Christ Church Churchyard Extension, Radlett. 
==Notes==
==References==
*Cammaerts, Pieter Emile Gerard, cwgc.org. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
Category:1919 births
Category:1941 deaths
Category:British military personnel
Category:British people of Belgian descent
Category:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Category:Buried in England
Category:Sergeants