|
Richard Charles Rivaz DFC: Collyer's master, author
and war hero
To those that still remember him, Dick
Rivaz (or Ronnie, as he was for some reason also
known) cut a dashing figure, a man who seemed to
epitomise all that was best in the RAF in World War
II: tall, fair haired, stylish. full of energy and
humour, and devil-may-care - with a creative talent to
boot. He also had more than his fair share of courage.
But to many locally he also became a subject of much
regret, in that, having survived all that the war
could throw at him, (during which, as we will see, he
occupied a bomber's hottest of hot seats, and gained
great distinction along the way), he was to die in
late 1945, when it was all over - not in action, like
so many of his colleagues – but in a senseless
transport accident, while flying home from the
Continent as a peacetime passenger. Having survived so
much, how ironic to lose his life when all the
aggression and violence he had lived through was
exhausted. What a waste.
Richard Charles Rivaz was born in India in 1908. While
Rivaz is an attractive little village in the wine
growing area of Switzerland, and historically there
may be some distant link between the surname and the
place, the connection with India is more immediate.
Sir Charles Montgomery Rivaz (1845-1926) was a
prominent figure in the British Raj, appointed by Lord
Curzon, for example, to investigate wage rates among
tea garden labourers in Assam, and between 1902-07 he
held the position of Lieutenant-Governor of the
Punjab. He was known as a firm but progressive
administrator, who looked after the interests of the
agricultural population. His father had been in the
Bengal Civil Service, his brother was a career soldier
of some distinction, and he had three sons. Given that
Sir Charles and Richard Charles both possessed the
same individual and unusual surname, and both had an
Indian background, it is possible that they were
related. Was one, perhaps, the grandson of the other?
I know little of Dick Rivaz's early life, but he had
an affection for Cornwall, and tended to refer to it
as 'home'. He also had an interest in farming. In
September 1936, at the age of 28, and after having
studied in London at the Royal College of Art, he came
to Collyer's as an art and PT (as we used to call it)
master; he was a house tutor in Collyer's house and
taught at the school until April 1940, when he left to
join No 9 Bombing and Gunnery School at Penrhos. I
have been told that he lived with his mother in a
house in North Heath Lane called Robin's Post, just
beyond where Kaymat's used to be, and while the name
of the house is listed in contemporary street
directories, frustratingly there is no occupier's name
between 1937-41. Nor does the name Rivaz appear in the
general lists of town residents. It has also been said
that Rivaz lived in Hove, but so far I have seen no
evidence. But earlier, around 1905, there was a Miss
Rivaz living in Brighton and a Mrs Rivaz at East
Lavant. This could be co-incidence, or there might be
a connection: I am not sure.
His pupils from that time had fond memories of him. I
learnt from Joan Dinnage how her husband David and his
schoolfriend Roy Hewett used to get rides on their
teacher's 1,000 cc Brough Superior and side-car (the
'Rolls Royce' of motorbikes: TE Lawrence had one,
fatally as it turned out), one in the car and the
other a pillion pasneger - and Rivaz used to tear
about the place, cornering fast and furiously: so much
so that the side-car wheels used to lift right off the
ground.
Collyer's had an annual summer camp at Cuckmere Haven
in those days, and Rivaz was one of the supervising
masters. He also introduced the school to camping at
Coolhurst, and according to The Collyerian the summer
of 1938 saw 'the best camp the school had ever had' He
is remembered as a popular figure, larger than life,
with a pretty rumbustious approach, and not above
clouting the odd head from time to time - which I am
sure did no harm, but which would see a teacher hauled
up before the courts in these more sensitive days. Old
Collyerians will also remember the Rivaz Cup, donated
in memory of the man, and awarded – appropriately
enough – for shooting. It was also recorded in the
Christmas 1950 issue of The Collyerian that Rivaz's
father had donated £500 to the school's Fourth
Centenary Fund, in memory of his son.
We have noted his love of the West Country, and I have
been lucky enough to see one of his paintings set in
that location, in local ownership. He had a studio in
Chelsea, which seems pretty stylish, and surely points
to private means: not typical of the average grammar
school teacher, one would have thought. It was said
that he was 'well known in London as a painter'.
Other Old Collyerians have memories of Rivaz turning
up at school while on leave from the war, and Derek
Dinnage recollects a visit one foggy day in February
1943 when a low flying Dornier 215 dropped two bombs
on Horsham, one on a house in nearby Richmond Road.
CIBA could have been the target. Derek tells of how
Rivaz led a party of ATC navigation class cadets to
the site after school was over, in order to offer
help. In Derek's own words: 'when we arrived at the
house, where four ladies had been playing bridge, it
was a pile of rubble with a cordite smell in the air.
As we arrived, miraculously the ladies came out of the
house with very little assistance from us, as I
recall. I will never forget the first words of the
lady who must have been hosting the game – "where is
my dog?".The dog was recovered alive two or three days
later, I think'.
Again John Snelling has a vivid memory of Dick Rivaz
wearing dark glasses during the day, again while on
leave, presumably to keep his eye-sight attuned to
night-time flying. On one of his trips back to the
school, which he clearly had a great affection for,
and fully intended to return to once the war was over,
'he gave cadets and officers in the cadet corps such a
drilling as even those who groaned under him as PT
instructor aren't likely to forget'.
So let's now turn to the man's war-time career, and
the two books that he wrote about his experiences. The
first, and best known, was Tail Gunner (that was
indeed the hot seat), first published in 1943, and
dedicated to 'all tail gunners who sit..... watch and
wait'. The author, while on leave, signed copies at
the Red Lion bookshop in South Street, and the work
found a ready sale locally. The second, Tail Gunner
Takes Over, came out in early 1945 - and both books
have the singular distinction of immediacy; they were
written at the time and on the spot. Neither were
after-the-event publications (as were so many of that
genre), and they are all the better for it. Tail
Gunner was a big seller, and was also published in a
Danish translation and a modern reprint.
It tells the story of Rivaz's part in RAF Bomber
Command's fledgling offensive between August 1940 and
December 1941, when he was tail gunner in Leonard
Cheshire's crew, flying in Whitleys with No 102
Squadron and later in Halifaxes with No 35 Squadron.
The author gives graphic and colourful descriptions of
night bombing missions against heavily defended enemy
targets such as Duisberg, Dusseldorf and Essen, and
tells of a dramatic shoot-out with German fighters
over La Rochelle in broad daylight in July 1941.
He also tells how, on two consecutive night raids on
Cologne, he narrowly escaped disaster. On the first
occasion his plane was set on fire, and the second
time it crash-landed in the North Sea, where Rivaz and
three of the crew spent eight hours in a dinghy before
being rescued. This was a terrible incident, and the
four lucky men had to watch helplessly as their pilot,
trapped on top of the plane, drowned as the fuselage
sank beneath the waves. Although Rivaz spoke little
about it himself, the other airmen were later quoted
in newspapers as saying that they owed their lives to
his work in getting them safely into the dinghy
By 1943 Rivaz held the rank of Flight Lieutenant and
the distinction of a DFC, which he was awarded at the
end of 1941 in recognition of the part he played in
the bombing of the battleship Scharnhorst in Brest
harbour, when his plane was hit and had to ditch in
the Channel - his second such experience. The crew all
survived, but Rivaz suffered a broken foot. The
Scharnhorst, a potent example of German sea-power,
also survived that bombing raid, but was finally sunk
by the British Navy off Norway on 26 December 1943, so
delivering a major psychological blow to the enemy.
The school celebrated the news of his award with a
half day's holiday (as indeed it did when the news
came through that he had escaped unharmed from
ditching in the North Sea), and he received his DFC
from George VI on 10 March 1942.
The position of tail gunner was highly vulnerable, and
Rivaz graphically conveys that sense of vulnerability
in his description of one night raid over Cologne:
'the searchlights dazzled and mocked us as they clawed
and pawed with their evil clutches about our
aeroplane, trying to snatch it from the sky....they
were holding us steady for the shells to hit....I was
completely blinded in my turret....I felt so exposed
and visible, sitting stuck out at the back of the
aeroplane surrounded by perspex'.
But the book also gives a very clear picture of the
spirit of comradeship that existed between the members
of a wartime bomber crew, and the sense of how they
must have lived for the day – not knowing whether
there was to be another one. In the way of things then
they all had nick-names, of course, and Rivaz was
generally known as 'Riv', though Leonard Cheshire
always called him 'Revs'. Russell Braddon, in his
biography Cheshire VC, gives a vivid impression of the
bond that existed between the young men: 'they were a
good crew, Cheshire and Desmond, his wireless operator
and Revs and Taffy. They were inseparable and happy
together. The war was joyous and exhilarating in its
camaraderie and excitement. And already they had the
reputation of flying with a man who was lucky
(Cheshire). Luck and determination, that was what you
needed to survive a war in the air'.
Revs had created a mascot for the crew – a cat holding
Hitler's head between its paws; a lucky cat because
Cheshire was lucky. But while Cheshire's luck was to
hold, the same did not go for the others, and
Britain's greatest bomber pilot, the winner of three
DSOs, a DFC and a VC, was in due course to experience
the loss of all his early flying companions. Revs was
the last to go.
Tail Gunner Takes Over tells of Rivaz's training
period as a pilot, and starts with his transfer from
an operational squadron to become a gunnery
instructor. But he became frustrated with this role,
and determined to learn to fly. The book recounts this
next stage in his life, much of which was in Canada,
and is full of graphic description - from the Great
Lakes to the Rockies, and of leave taken in New York,
where everyone was so friendly and stopped him in the
street to wish him luck.
By the end of the war Rivaz held the rank of Squadron
Leader (206 Squadron), and was then set to write a
history of RAF Transport Command. He was collecting
material for the book when, on Saturday 13 October
1945, the Liberator (an American bomber) on which he
was a passenger caught fire when taking off from
Brussels. It crashed at Melsbrock, and everyone was
killed: five crew and twenty six passengers. Dick
Rivaz, who never married, is now buried in Brussels
town cemetery.
At the memorial service held for him in Horsham parish
church on 31 October headmaster PAT Tharp gave a
moving address. He spoke of the man's self-discipline
and determination, and of his restless and untiring
energy; 'he seized every opportunity of life and threw
all his energies into the adventures that life could
afford him......we thank God that we have known him'.
I have been privileged to have been shown a letter
Rivaz wrote to an old friend in Horsham on 9 October
that year, just four days before his death. He wrote
from Headquarters, Transport Command at Bushy Park,
full of optimism 'I was due to be demobbed three
months ago but am staying on for a bit longer yet. I
have got a very interesting job and am now a squadron
leader. I am doing a lot of flying all over the place.
I was in India and China about six weeks ago, and I
expect to go to India again on Saturday for about a
week'
But that next trip was not to be.
Many thanks to Joan Dinnage, Derek Dinnage, John
Snelling and John Veitch for their help – and in
particular to Nick Weller, the Old Collyerians'
Association archivist. |
