R C S Hutching

 

 

Colin Medhurst is not the easiest of people to get along with. He does not suffer fools gladly and takes a very pragmatic, some might say cynical, view of life.

Billy Hagen acts as a gently modifying influence

and has done so since August 1940 when the pair first met as serving pilots of Fighter Command.

In the days immediately following the disappearance of a young Display Pilot during an exhibition flight, Medhurst's initially gruff dismissal of the occurrence is characteristic of the man. Days flowed into weeks and the continued absence of any further news had led to a widespread acceptance that the young man had gone down with his plane to a watery grave in the Channel. During this period Medhurst's view began to change and getting to the bottom of the mystery became almost an obsession.

When the answer finally became clear it was, without doubt, far beyond what anybody could have anticipated.

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Colin Medhurst, was not quite five feet ten inches in height, stockily built, and with a pugnacious, almost irascible look on his face. Brown eyes peered at the world from beneath an unruly thatch of brown hair that, betrayed by age, was beginning to carry a few tell-tale grey streaks. In contrast his close friend, Billy Hagen was tall, slim, and possessed a similar tone of voice and a passing resemblance to the late actor James Stewart. The temperaments of the two men differed sharply. The American, Hagen, viewed the world in a laid back, almost casual manner in contrast to Medhurst's brusque, restless, approach to life. It is said that opposites attract which may be the reason for the friendship between the Englishman and the American lasting for over thirty years.