Flight Sergeant Tony LaGruta died on 24 August 1941 when his Boulton Paul Defiant fighter on a training mission from East Fortune crashed at Hunt Hill in a remote part of the Lammermuirs. He was buried where he fell, and the remains of his aircraft are still there.
I have been making an annual hike to this spot for years now as I didn’t want this young Aussie to be forgotten. He had come from the other side of the world to fight for us, and he, along with so many others, deserves to be remembered. I was very pleased to see that this year, someone had beaten me to it, and placed a large poppy wreath in his memory.
by George Robertson