In Memory of Colin Skillett, 21/09/1941 – 11/12/2015
Colin Anthony Skillett who was born in Guernsey on 21st September 1941, died in Bentworth on December 11th, 2015, was the first of seven children born to Gladys and Sidney Skillett.
Colin was a kindly and adventurous man. He learned to fly in the Fleet Air Arm. At 27 he became the youngest captain on East African Airlines’ Super VC-10 fleet. Later he moved to Cathay Pacific, the prestigious Hong Kong based airline.
As a little boy, not yet one year old, Colin and his mother and English born father had become caught up in the deportations that took place in the Channel Islands in 1942. In July 1940, the German Army had occupied Guernsey. As a reprisal for the arrest and detention of German nationals when Anglo-Soviet forces invaded Iran, Hitler ordered the deportation and imprisonment of all Channel Islanders born in UK and their families. The family, along with hundreds of others, carrying minimum luggage, assembled at the harbour for transportation to France.
After a very long train journey through France, they reached Dorsten in Northern Germany. The camp conditions here were appalling. The Swiss Red Cross intervened and the internees were transferred to Biberach in southern Germany where the camp had previously housed prisoners of war. Gladys was five months pregnant with their second child. The prisoners arrived in freezing conditions and were marched from the station through the snow up a long winding road to the camp. Here they remained until 23rd April 1945 when the camp was liberated by the French army, an event that formed one of Colin’s earliest memories.
The British forces liberated Guernsey on May 9th 1945. The family returned to a threadbare post-war Guernsey. Colin and his siblings had an idyllic childhood. Their home was surrounded by farmland where they played. They spent summers swimming at the beach, and made lifelong friendships with other children in the close Guernsey community.
Colin was a very bright boy. He won a scholarship to Elizabeth College, the local public school. He was a keen footballer and played for the College first team. He discovered what he wanted to do with the rest of his life when he started gliding with the RAF section of its Combined Cadet Force
Colin worked for a time as a docker at the harbour before joining the Fleet Air Arm as a Midshipman. Whilst training on 05 May1961in a jet provost, the aircraft crashed 5 miles from York after failing to recover from a spin. The crew Flt.Lt. W. A. Langworthy, and Colin ejected safely. Colin became a member of the caterpillar club
Colin left the Fleet Air Arm soon after gaining his wings but he was determined to continue civil flying. He was unable to get a grant to continue his civil flying training so returned briefly to Guernsey to earn the money to go to Africa where the colonial meltdown was providing commercial flying opportunities. One job was working all night to steam and sterilize the soil in greenhouses for tomato crops.
Colin and an old friend decided to hitchhike to Africa via Spain. Here they met a Canadian magazine representative and all travelled together in his car, a Pontiac, through Algeria. Many adventures followed over the next months as they made their way through Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Congo.
Colin reached Kenya in December 1963 just as it was granted independence. Before long he was flying small charter aircraft from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania becoming a very proficient “bush pilot’. He joined East African Airways, and flew Rapides, Comets and then the super VC10‘s. He wrote long letters home and wanted his family to share in his life’s adventures so far from Guernsey and even paid for his sister Gloria to join him in Africa.
Colin and Sandy married in 1973 and he joined Cathay Pacific Airline that year based in Hong Kong where he flew Boeing 707, and the 747. Their son Guy was born November 3rd 1980 and daughter Kimberly July 20th 1984.
Colin loved Hong Kong and flying in South East Asia. On his night stops he loved exploring market places for different foodstuff and gadgets, he had a zest for life and was interested in all people.
The family spent 21 very happy years in Hong Kong before premature retirement and return to their home in Bentworth, Hampshire in 1995. Sadly as time went on, Colin suffered memory loss that was diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Ultimately he would also become one of the disease’s longest surviving patients. In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2003, his wife Sandra said ‘All I know is that Colin will stay at home as long as it is possible and we will face things as they arise,’
He took part in trials for an experimental vaccine. It was quite noticeable that Colin had some recognition of close friends and family members, even until his very sad death. Sandy was an exceptional wife and friend to our brother Colin and devoted many years of her life to looking after him.
Colin was a loving and loyal brother to us, his sisters and brothers. He cared for and helped us in so many ways. He was an inspiration and opened up a different world to Guernsey for all in our family. We could never repay him for this and have greatly missed his advice and love over the last few years.
Gloria Dudley-Owen
