Ken Trent moved to Jersey in 1968 after a successful business career. He passed away in the early hours of Thursday at Jersey Hospice with his family at his bedside.
Mr Trent joined the RAF in 1941 at the age of 18 and after flight training in Canada he became a Lancaster pilot with the rank of Flight Lieutenant when he was 21. In 1944, he flew the first of 54 missions over Europe – including 11 missions with 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron after the raids on the Ruhr Valley dams.
Mr Trent was twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, first by the King, and on the second occasion by Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, the head of Bomber Command.
He also met the inventor of the special bouncing bombs used to breach the dams, Barnes Wallis.
Mr Trent flew in the Normandy campaign in 1944, and in precision-bombing missions targeting submarine bases, and Hitler’s mountain-top retreat at Berchtesgaden.
In 2016 he published his memoir, Bomb Doors Open, with the help of writer and BBC journalist Chris Stone.
‘“Just do it” was Ken’s motto in life and he stuck to it right to the very end. In the last conversation I had with him he talked about his beloved Lancaster bomber, and how he reckoned he could still fly one today,’ Mr stone said.
‘He was a man of great humanity, whose boisterous laugh and wicked sense of humour hid a deep humility and gratitude that he had survived where many of his comrades had not. I cannot express how privileged I am to have called him my friend.’
Despite his first RAF number being the rather ominous 133300, his only injury in the war was a cut above his eyes.
Recalling the incident in an interview with the JEP when his book was published, Mr Trent said: ‘I was lucky a few times. Once a piece of flak came through my windscreen. It made a hell of a noise and I couldn’t see because of the wind streaming in. Then the flight engineer said, “Are you all right skip?” and I didn’t know what he meant until he said, “Look at your hands.” He saw my face was running in blood and my hands were covered in it, but I didn’t realise. Small bits of glass had hit me and there was a bigger piece above my left eye.’
Leaving the RAF after the war, Mr Trent established a successful network of shops which he sold in the 1960s. He moved to the Island as a wealthy immigrant and immersed himself in Island life, indulging his lifelong passion for sailing and joining the Royal Air Forces Association Jersey branch.
Branch member Peter Clarke said: ‘We have lost a great friend and the Island has lost a local hero. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his widow, Ann, and his entire family.’
Mr Trent was bitten by the sailing bug as a young boy and went on to become twice overall champion of the East Anglian Offshore Racing Association Series in his yacht Vae Victis, which was designed by his friend Alan Buchanan, who also left the east coast of England and settled in Jersey. Mr Buchanan’s son Richard, also a yachtsman, says Mr Trent as a wonderful man with a ‘larger-than-life character’.
‘Even in later life you would see him bombing around town on his mobility scooter. That was Ken, he certainly had his money’s worth right up to the last minute – and that is the way he would have liked it.’
