John joined the Royal Navy soon after he left school, undertaking early flying training in the USA, gaining his wings and commission in May 1942. For the next two years he was on convoy work during the Battle of the Atlantic. Early in 1944 he was appointed to the Services Trial Unit based at HMS Condor (RNAS Arbroath); a Naval Air Station in Arbroath tasked with training Naval Aviators: a position of special responsibility of which he was rightly proud.

The airfield and its facilities were also used by visiting Naval Air Squadrons as a home base, usually whilst their home carriers were berthed in the Firth of Forth or the Clyde. The training units at RNAS Arbroath made good use of the nearby airfield at East Haven as an additional site for Deck Landing Training.

On Saturday 2^nd December 1944 John took off from RAF Ayr in a Grumman Wildcat Mk.V [JV499] belonging to No 778 Naval Air Sqn when shortly afterwards the aircraft flew into Auchenlongford Hill on Blackside, close by the village of Sorn, Ayrshire; he did not survive the crash. Small items of wreckage can still be seen in situ to this day. After his death at the age of 22 John’s Commanding Officer wrote of the valuable work that he did in connection with the improvement of safety devices in operating aircraft from ships.

He is buried in Ayr Cemetery, Scotland.

Elder son of Henry Armstrong & Katherine May Armstrong of Denbigh, North Wales.

A copy of this story is available to download here.

See also the Commonwealth War Graves Commission permanent digital memorial, Evermore: Stories of the fallen’ relating to:-
Sub-Lieutenant John Geoffrey ARMSTRONG