Guernsey pilot leading walking tours about WW2 pilot who landed on Lihou Island

  • Video report by ITV News' Kate Prout

A airline pilot from Guernsey is leading a walking tour today (8 August) to tell the little known story of an heroic pilot who landed on Lihou Island during World War two.

Tim Osborne is also an historical tour guide and after hearing the story from an islander decided to research the tale in full. 

It was Friday 11th April 1941 and a young Scottish pilot by the name of Robert 'Bobby' Stirling was on a routine night patrol in his one seater Hawker Hurricane. Over the course of the night he saw off two German fighter planes but a faulty compass meant he was lost and running low on fuel.

Also miraculously it was low tide so he could walk across the causeway and somehow made it through a minefield next to L'eree beach.

Bobby Stirling ended up in a prison of war camp. but he hardly ever spoke of his experience.

He eventually returned to Scotland and had a family. But that wasn't his only visit to the island. Bobby visited the Broards in the 1960's and he always kept in touch with the quiet Guernsey couple who took him in during his hour of need.