My grandfather Douglas Coxell, who has died aged 100, spent most of his life flying – initially in the second world war before training RAF pilots in peacetime, and then for a civilian airline in the Channel Islands, where he was a pilot until retirement at 65. Even then he continued to fly as a training captain for the Channel Islands Air Search service until the age of 86, hanging up his goggles only when he could no longer find a company that would insure him.
Doug was born in Peterborough to Sybil (nee Cox) and Horace Coxell, an officer in the first world war who went on to be a railway clerk. After leaving school at 14, Doug worked at the London Brick Company, tried his hand as a policeman in the Huntingdonshire Constabulary – opening his eyes to village life behind closed doors – and then in 1942 joined the RAF.
