Wyndham Levy-Grech was born in 1890, the son of Mr and Mrs T. Levy Grech of Valletta. He graduated in law from the University of Malta in 1913 and proceeded to England where he joined the Royal Flying Corps and was gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant Military Wing. He obtained his aviator licence on July 18, 1916.
He was born in Pernambuco state, Brazil, while his parents were on a long business trip there from Egypt. He returned to Malta when he was two years old and lived with his aunt in Valletta.
His mother was Terezina Grech-Mifsud. His grandfather was born in Benghazi and his father was born in Tripoli. There is very little information about his father’s side apart from the fact that his surname was Levy.
In 1937, Wyndham Levy-Grech presented a request in the Egyptian Courts to drop this part of his surname. In fact, all his service records before 1937 bear the name Wyndham Levy-Grech, while those after that date feature Wyndham Grech.
The entry recording his parents’ marriage in a family tree list available online is listed as “Terezina Grech-Mifsud, married NN. Levy, with issue”. The Grech-Mifsud origin comes from Angelo Grech, who married Giulia at Żejtun in 1596.
Wyndham Grech married Julia Vassallo and had five children: Anthony, Leslie, Maurice (Mgr Maurice), Myra and Joan (Sister Mary Peter).
On March 12, 1911, he read a paper about Charles Dickens at the Old Boys’ Association, St Aloysius’ College, Birkirkara, which was published as a book and is listed on Amazon.com. It was printed at the Daily Malta Chronicle office, Valletta, in 1911.
In 1913 he left Malta for England where he joined the army in March as 2nd Lieutenant. In 1915 he served with his battalion in Cyprus where he commanded a detachment at Nicosia. He later transferred to the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.
On July 19, 1916, he qualified for aviators’ certificate no. 7293. Immediately after, he was posted to 42nd Squadron on the Western Front in France. He flew both reconnaissance missions to update the artillery on the ground and also bombed some targets behind enemy lines. He flew BE 2E twin-seater aircraft no. 6261 on reconnaissance sorties on August 31 and September 1 and 3, mainly over Belgian territory.
On September 6, he flew a bombing sortie on Westroosebeke, Belgium, and dropped two 112-pound bombs from 7,000 feet that hit the village. On September 7, the log book entry listed him to fly a formation with another 11 aircraft; this time he was to fly aircraft no. 6260 to bomb an aerodrome. However, this entry was crossed off and no remarks were entered, while the other aircraft flew the sortie and returned.
He flew both reconnaissance missions to update the artillery on the ground and also bombed some targets behind enemy lines
It appears Grech’s planned flight did not take place, most likely due to engine problems he had in earlier flights. The same aircraft was logged as being flown by somebody else for a 10-minute test flight on September 14 after an engine overhaul.
Elsewhere it was written that on September 11 Grech shot down an enemy aircraft and that while in action he was wounded and his gunner was killed. But according to the 42nd Squadron’s log book, Grech did not fly on September 11 so one cannot verify the claim that he shot an aircraft on that day. Grech’s name did not feature in the log books of 42 Squadron for the rest of September. One would have to engage in more research to find out what really happened in the following days and months during WWI.
On April 1, 1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy Air Services were amalgamated into what became the Royal Air Force. In the RAF service form for Wyndham Levy-Grech one finds his first entry on April 16, 1918, when he moved from BEF 7AF Unit to headquarters.
His service record sheet shows he was admitted to 11th General Hospital on January 9, 1919, and was moved to No 62 on January 15. He was discharged on April 18, and on August 10 an entry under ‘Remarks’ reads “progressing favourably”. On April 22, 1919, he was listed as moving from Italy to Southeast Area as Camel Flight Commander. This order was cancelled and he was transferred to the unemployment list on May 7, 1919, at the rank of captain in the RAF.
On July 18, 1919, he started a legal battle through Messrs Henry Hilburn and Son to obtain a certificate of nationalisation so that he could travel in and out of the UK freely at any time. He argued that the fact that he possessed British passport no. 123293 issued on September 16, 1916, which was renewed at the Passport Office, London, on July 17, 1919, does not guarantee him free movement in and out of the UK. A number of legal letters were exchanged between the British Foreign Office and his legal representatives.
On April 1, 1920, the Italian government awarded him the title Cavaliere della Corona d’Italia, indicating that he performed some service in Italy.
During the period between 1920 and 1927 he served in the Colonial Service in the Seychelles Islands as crown prosecutor.
In the 1930s he served in Egypt with the Colonial Service, and in 1937 he filed the court request to have his name changed from Levy-Grech to Grech.
Upon the declaration of World War II he was recalled into service with the RAF as squadron leader, mainly on administrative and legal duties. This was recorded in the London Gazette of December 12, 1939. He was included in the Active List as W. Grech, British, Administrative and Special Duties Branch, Flight Lieutenant serving with RAF Voluntary Reserve. He was later listed as Squadron Leader Service no. 76039.
On May 21, 1945, as a S/Ldr Wyndham Grech, DJA c/o DJAG Department, HQ, RAF, Middle East, he wrote a long, confidential letter to the Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Service, that various prominent people in Malta had approached him with a view of forming a party under the new Constitution. However, he wrote that he did not plan to do this, as after his strenuous duties he felt he deserved a good rest. He wrote that as an ex-Colonial Office servant he felt duty bound to forward some considerations to be taken into account when the new Constitution was being drafted.
What he wrote in his six-page letter is very interesting, but I will leave it for another occasion to expand about this and other interesting episodes of Sqd Ldr Wyndham Grech, who passed away in Malta in 1956.
He was an honour to our country and to himself, and the least I could do was to bring this to the attention of the public. Being the first known Maltese pilot 100 years ago should not be left unrecognised.
Major Tony Abela is a former RAF telecommunications technician and author of Malta’s Early Warning Systems during WWII.