He joined the Royal Air Force and was
trained as an observer. On the night of 12
to 13 April 1942, P/O Barlow and his crew
were one of 251 that were dispatched to the
city of Essen, in the German industrial Ruhr
area.
Their Wellington X3596 took off from the
base at 22.57. It was shot down by a
night-fighter and crashed into the
IJsselmeer, East of Urk around 01.00. the
whole crew died an all are buried in the New
Eastern Cemetery at Amsterdam.
Ronald Barlow
was 25.
The following
obituary appeared in the November 1942
number of The Brazen Nose, the
Brasenose College magazine:
"Pilot Officer
Ronald William Barlow was missing in April
1942 and is presumed killed. The death, in
action with the R.A.F., of Ronnie Barlow
will have come as a shock and sorrow to his
friends and contemporaries. That short,
fair-haired figure concealed, behind a
modest and temperate front, qualities for
which not a few were happy to know and
appreciate. In life he probably always felt
more embarrassed than flattered by the
praise he earned, and that memory survives
to render an appreciation difficult.
Ronnie’s character was clearly revealed in
his work, and his academic career was
consistent with his performances in other
fields. He came from Stockport to Brasnose
as a Scholar in 1934 and read for the School
of Modern History in which he obtained a
very good Second three years later. He was a
hard, interested and economical worker. His
interest in history was a general one, but
he could always turn on local or specialized
knowledge to good account. His work was
essentially honest; it never lacked form or
solid substance, and it never strove after
effect.
Ronnie had a fundamentally modest nature and
he was seldom demonstratively enthusiastic.
He possessed a clear and orderly mind, a
keen grasp of essentials, as ready
appreciation of wit or the ridiculous. He
was rarely flustered, was imperturbably
good-humoured and possessed a nice sense of
proportion. He was keenly interested in
contemporary progressive politics but never
allowed this interest to disturb his
historical judgment. Religion and the
membership of an organized Christian
communion were an essential part of his
life, but he rarely referred to either and
certainly did not allow them to interfere
with his friendships for others whose
convictions were different. His sympathies
and interests were wide. He was an active
member of the Pater Society in College, and
in the University of the Stubbs Society. He
distinguished himself in the athletic field,
playing regularly for, and eventually
captaining, the University Lacrosse team.
On Going Down, Ronnie entered the Civil
Service and served in the Colonial Office.
He was excellently suited for this career
and should have done well in it. When I last
met him, in the early months of the war, he
was working in the Mediterranean Section,
greatly enjoying the work and the life in
London, but at the same time ‘eagerly’
looking forward to the time when he might be
released for military service.
E.G.C. (Eric George Collieu (1911-1975),
a Fellow of Brasenose since 1935)
[Perhaps a few words may be added by one who
saw Ronnie a few times and had several of
his racy, buoyant letters, after he joined
the R.A.F.V.R. Ronnie joined up in the early
summer of 1941, and when first he arrived in
Air Force blue at Brasnose he was
acting-corporal-observer at an E.F.T.S. In
September, after only six hours flying and
14 days at his O.T.U., he was sent for
operational work and, very diffident of his
abilities, he characteristically determined
to tell his new O.C. that he thought it
would be a mistake to send him on
operational work till he had had a little
more experience. By 18th December he had
done 25 hours operational flying and had had
at least one exciting experience. ‘ We came
out from a target and, thinking we were over
the sea, came down to 6,000 and let the
second pilot, who was doing his first trip,
take over. Actually we were skirting the
enemy coast and they soon drew this fact to
our attention in a very striking and
unmistakable way. We were very disappointed
the next day to find out that there were no
holes in our machine.’ He then wrote, ‘Since
our Mess Dance I have been living a
righteous and sober life, though heaven
knows what will happen at Christmas. As far
as I can see, the celebrations continue for
about ten days and our only hope is that the
German A.A. gunners and fighter pilots will
be having a similarly light time. It might
be a strategic move to relax the blockade
with these ends in view.’ On the Sunday
after Christmas he had a very successful and
‘thoroughly enjoyable’ trip, in spite of the
intense cold, but then came a period of
monotonous inaction. ‘ All we can do is to
hang around the crew-room doing the Daily
Mirror cross-word and follow the adventures,
I am ashamed to say, of Jane and Popeye. I
reserve the Times and Telegraph cross-words
for the mess, where we have a syndicate of
solvers, or would-be solvers.’ At the end of
March he wrote the letter which appeared in
the summer number of Oxford at pg. 74. As
with many another, the enforced camaraderie
of war-time had done much to banish Ronnie’s
natural reserve. He had never been a
recluse, but he had gained in self-assurance
and in his power of letting himself go. He
was sincerely determined to help build a
better world, but the essential seriousness
of his purpose did not prevent him from
being a splendid man at a party. He played
the piano and delighted in singing -in
making music- and he had the supreme gift of
being able to laugh at himself. Even when
the course of true love did not run smooth,
he never lost his outward cheerfulness.
Happy must have been the crew which had
Ronnie for its observer!]"
P/O Barlow is buried at the Nieuwe
Oosterbegraafplaats in Amsterdam Plot 85.
Row D. Grave 15.
If there be good in that I wrought, Thy
hand compell'd it. Master, Thine