Notes
John Amphlett was born in Berkshire on 17 March 1917, the son of John, an iron merchant, and Florence (née Yorke). He was educated at Cothill Preparatory School, and at Radley College from 1930 to 1934, where he was a member of the boat club and achieved his School Certificate in 1932.
John Amphlett matriculated on 12 October 1934, the tenth member of his family to attend Worcester College in a tradition stretching back to 1735. His uncle, Eddie Amphlett (1894), the most recent member of the family to study at the College, was killed in action at Gallipoli in 1915. While up at Worcester John Amphlett was a member of the College Boat Club and rowed in the Torpid and the Eight in 1935 and 1936. He achieved 3rd class honours in Jurisprudence in 1937. On leaving Oxford he was articled to a firm of London solicitors, and had taken all but his final exam when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he trained as an Observer and rose to the rank of Sergeant.
On 19 January 1942, John Amphlett was part of a crew of a Wellington bomber from 9 Squadron who took off from RAF Honington in Suffolk, for a navigational training exercise. The aircraft suffered a structural failure in the outer part of the starboard wing shortly after take-off, and crashed just to the north of Thetford, Norfolk, where it burst into flames. Sergeant John Amphlett and the other crew members were all killed.
John Amphlett is buried at All Saints Church, Honington, Suffolk, and is commemorated on the war memorials at St Leonard’s Church, Clent, Radley College, and at Worcester College, Oxford. His father, who did not attend Oxford, left a considerable benefaction to the College to endow scholarships in his son’s name.