A Brief History of the School
When Suttons School was officially opened by Lady Simon on the 2nd June 1938, it was unique in being situated only 530 yards from the perimeter of Hornchurch Aerodrome, soon to gain fame as a vital Sector Station in R.A.F. Fighter Command's elite No. 11 Group.
Built to accommodate 960 boys and girls in two entirely separate establishments, the new school drew it's pupils from Suttons Lane, Benhurst, Ayloff and Blacksmiths Lane junior schools. Locating the Boys' School at the southern edge of the building was a major error since it overlooked the aerodrome, and teachers in top floor classrooms whose windows afforded panoramic views across the entire airfield, swiftly discovered that keeping the average schoolboy's mind upon his work, instead of watching aircraft taking off and landing, was no easy task.
In 1943, at 10.40am on Wednesday 24th March, a spitfire of No 64. Squadron piloted by Flying Officer Raimond Sanders Draper, an American volunteer serving with the R.A.F,developed engine trouble shortly after take-off from the Suttons Aerodrome. What actually happened will never be known for sure but those present believe that he intended passing to the left of the school in an attempt to land on open ground. Realising that with reduced power he could possibly hit the school, he deliberately put the nose of the Spitfire down in the playing field, whereupon it bounced up onto the gravel drive and came to rest against the wall and windows of the two end classrooms. The noise was tremendous but mercifully the high octane fuel did not ignite and only one boy, Dick Barten aged 13, was injured.
An R.A.F. crash tender smashed its way clean through the wooden boundary fence but Sanders Draper was dead in his cockpit. Mr. Ward, the Deputy Headmaster, assembled the boys in the School Hall where he told them of the sad news. After the dinner break, in typically English tradition, teaching continued normally. A plaque suitably inscribed, marks the actual spot of the crash.