Today, sadly long after they have both departed, there is at least one point of commonality. The first names by which their peers addressed them (“Sholto” and “Dunlop” respectively) seem to have the ability to cause confusion among writers.
A few years ago I was asked to express an opinion on whether a new book on the Battle of Britain should be stocked at Capel-le-Ferne. Spotting several references to a senior officer apparently with the surname “Sholto-Douglas”, was one factor in my negative reaction. Look on the internet today and you will find accounts of the exploits of a non-existent Spitfire pilot with the name “Dunlop-Urie”.
The incident for which Dunlop Urie is perhaps best remembered occurred on 18 August 1940, one of the days of very heavy fighting in the Battle of Britain. Whether Dr Alfred Price’s description of it as “The Hardest Day” can be justified will no doubt be debated for many years to come.
Answering the call to scramble from Westhampnett against the approaching menace of masses of Stukas, with fighter escort, Flight Lieutenant Urie took off in Spitfire X 4110, newly taken on charge by the squadron. Over the airfield at Ford the aircraft was raked by cannon fire from a Bf 109. Less than half an hour after he had taken off, Urie landed back at Westhampnett, with shrapnel wounds in both legs. The CO of 602, Sandy Johnstone, later referred in print to Urie having returned in, “the remains of his Spitfire” and considered it “a miracle it still flew”.
Spitfire X 4110 was eventually struck off charge, allegedly the example of the type with the shortest combat record.
The pilot recovered and led a Wing in Russia. He died in Australia in 2001.
Sholto Douglas became Lord Douglas of Kirtleside and died in 1969. In 2021 his daughter, Katharine Campbell, produced a remarkable book about him, Behold the Dark Gray Man. I wrote a review for the website of the British Modern Military History Society and my conclusion perhaps bears repeating: “Sholto Douglas will continue to be a controversial figure. What has changed is that nobody can now be taken seriously in assessing him who has not read Campbell’s scholarly volume.”
Geoff Simpson, FRHistS
