Noel Agazarian

Noël Agazarian's father was Berge Agazarian (died 1944), an Armenian who arrived in the United Kingdom in 1911 as a teenager with little money. The four siblings' interest in aviation may have been sparked by their mother, who bought a World War I surplus Sopwith Pup fighter for £5 at a Croydon auction, and parked it in the back garden of the family house for use as a plaything by her children. Noël Agazarian was schooled at Dulwich College, where he was a member of the first XV Rugby union team, captained both the swimming and boxing teams and was awarded the Victor Ludorum for sporting achievement. He then went on to Wadham College, Oxford in 1935. An earlier application to Trinity College, Oxford was rejected, allegedly because the Trinity College President, Herbert Blakiston, objected to Agazarian's ethnicity. Hillary later wrote this description of Agazarian: ==RAF service==

Noël Agazarian joined the Royal Air Force as a Volunteer Reservist and was commissioned as a pilot officer on 14 February 1939. He completed his initial flying training at the same time as Richard Hillary, at Lossiemouth, after which both were assigned to Old Sarum, to train as army co-operation pilots. They flew Westland Lysander liaison aircraft and Hawker Hector biplanes; during the training, Agazarian crashed a Hector but was unscathed. After a few weeks of fighter training, Agazarian joined No. 609 Squadron, a fighter squadron flying Supermarine Spitfires and based at Warmwell in Dorset. It appears his victim was Gruppenkommandeur (Group Commander) Major Ernst Ott of Zerstörergeschwader 2. Ott was killed along with his gunner/radio operator. On 12 August, he shot down two Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters and damaged a Bf 110 This occurred during a large battle, when a formation of German bombers and their fighter escorts were intercepted by three RAF fighter squadrons after they bombed Portsmouth and its dockyards. Agazarian was promoted from pilot officer to flying officer on 14 August and continued to fly throughout the Battle of Britain. His last victory with No. 609 Squadron was on 2 December, when he shared in the destruction of a Dornier Do 17 bomber with Polish pilot Tadeusz Nowierski (in Polish). In January 1941, Agazarian received a requested transfer to No. 274 Squadron in North Africa, He is buried in the Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya. ==Notes==