A Tribute Arthur Fitch Former RAF Bomber
An 85 year-old former RAF bomber and Bath Chronicle employee has died of an aneurysm soon after being told he had the heart of a much younger man.
Arthur Fitch, from Eastfield Avenue in Weston, died on Sunday. His widow Joan, also 85, said his death has been very sudden. “It just happened. It was a massive one. I believe. He was unconscious. He just went over and that was it. It was very quick”. Mrs Fitch explained his death had come as a shock. He had seen a doctor not long ago to be told he had the heart of a 50 year old.
Mr Fitch grew up in Bath and worked at The Bath Chronicle for 21 years, where he was a typesetter. One of his proudest achievements was during the war when he joined the RAF as a flight engineer, going on more than 50 bombing raids to points all over Europe.
“He lost his first crew, as they were shot down and only two survived,” said Mrs Finch, who met her husband during the war. “He only had two operations to do until the end of his tour, so he joined another team, but they were very superstitious and didn’t like using the spares. He didn’t have the six months’ rest that they usually do”. During his five years with the RAF, Mr Fitch served with 15 and 199 Squadron, flying in Stirling, Halifax and Lancaster Bombers. “He loved the RAF and was very proud of it.”
When he retired, he decided to give more time to his hobbies - gardening, woodwork, photography, snooker and billiards. Mrs Fitch said: “He was gardening on Thursday and he’d look after the vegetables. He was very active, and a very fit man. Nobody believes he is dead. He was in the billiards and snooker clubs in the village, and won lots of cups and trophies. He loved classical music and he never lost his love of words. He was a stickler for good spelling. He’d pick up a word and make a pun out of it. He’d have everybody laughing”. Mrs Fitch added that he had many friends throughout Bath. “They won’t know he’s gone. But he knows lots of people because he used to play billiards and snooker all over Bath.
This article is from the Spring 2007 issue of Confound and Destroy
