THREE generations joined together on Monday in quiet remembrance of a Battle of Britain pilot and station booking clerk who died when a plane crashed in Staplehurst 63 years ago to the day.

Five Battle of Britain veterans and around 200 guests and villagers attended the unique service at the town's railway station to see a plaque unveiled in memory of Belgian fighter pilot Georges Louis Joseph Doutrepont who died when his plane crashed there on September 15, 1940.

He had collided with a German plane over the skies of Staplehurst and was fatally injured.

The plaque also remembered 18-year-old booking clerk Charles Ashdown, from Pluckley, who was killed when the plane crashed into the office where he was working and exploded.

On Monday, two F-16 fighters of the Belgian Air Force 329 Squadron performed a fly-past and flag bearers from the Royal British Legion and the Royal Air Force Association were also present.

The event was organised by Edward Sergison, from Staplehurst, who had arranged for Pilot Officer Dourepont's son, Eric, and his two granddaughters, Judith and Arella, to travel from Brussels to attend.

Rector of Staplehurst, the Rev Gill Calver, led prayers and officially commemorated the plaque, while Belgian Defence Attache Col Daniel De Cock paid tribute to the Belgian pilot.

The emotionally-charged service was particularly poignant for Eric Doutrepont. He said: "My father never knew his father either. His father was killed in the First World War when his son was only two years old. So it was the same story all over again. Hence, I am not in the Army."

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