New music recalls former Spitfire pilot's mysterious death

The life of a former Spitfire pilot who disappeared during a night-time flight 50 years ago has been recalled in a new collection of music.

Peter Gibbs shot down German V1 flying bombs when he served with the RAF in World War Two, and was a professional classical violinist after the war.

He vanished while flying solo from Glenforsa Airfield in Mull on Christmas Eve 1975. His body was discovered on a nearby hillside four months later, but there was no sign of his Cessna light plane.

Scottish musicians Donald Shaw and Greg Lawson have created the album Night Flight '75 in his memory.

Lawson said: "This album is our way of remembering a unique character and paying tribute to his extraordinary story."

Gibbs served with the RAF's 41 Squadron from 1944 to 1945.

The Englishman gained renown for shooting down four V1s, jet engine weapons nicknamed buzz bombs and doodlebugs.

After the war, he performed with a number of orchestras, including London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

He later became a property developer and in December 1975 travelled to Mull with his partner, Felicity Grainger, with the intention of buying a hotel on Scotland's west coast.

They viewed a property on Skye before returning to Mull and the Glenforsa Hotel where they had dinner.

Gibbs told his partner he wanted to do some night flying from the airfield next to the hotel.

The Cessna plane had been loaned to him by Ian Hamilton, a lawyer famous for being a member of a group of Scottish nationalists who removed the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and returned it to Scotland in 1950.

Gibbs partner, Ms Grainger, raised the alarm after he failed to return to the hotel as planned.

Despite a major search and rescue operation, neither Gibbs nor his plane were found.

Four months later, a shepherd found his body over a fallen larch tree on a hill about a mile from the hotel - in an area where rescuers had previously searched.

The shepherd, Donald Mackinnon, was among the speakers in a BBC programme broadcast just six months after he went missing, What Ever Happened to Peter Gibbs.

He told journalist Ken Cargill at the time he and others had been in the area a fortnight earlier, adding: "Some of the shepherds had passed within 10 or 20 yards of the place."

Gibbs was found with a small cut on his leg, but tests confirmed he had not been seriously injured and had died from exposure to cold weather.

Many theories emerged about his disappearance and death, ranging from the IRA being involved to it being linked to a theft of diamonds in Oban.

Others - including Ian Hamilton - believed his plane had gone into the sea and Gibbs somehow made it to land before he died.

However, tests found no trace of saltwater on his body or clothes.

The incident later became known as The Great Mull Air Mystery.

Divers spotted wreckage of a plane in the 1980s, but it was not possible to confirm that it was Gibbs' plane.

Brendan Walsh, who owns the Glenforsa Hotel today, believes parts of an aircraft brought up by a dredger in the Sound of Mull in November 2021 are from the Cessna.

He claimed: "We know that is Peter Gibbs' aircraft because all of the other aircraft that are sitting in the Sound of Mull are from World War Two, whereas that obviously is a small single-engine aircraft."

Fascination around Gibbs' story continues with the release of the new music.

Donald Shaw is a founding member of the band Capercaillie, an award-winning composer, and artistic director of Glasgow's Celtic Connections music festival.

Greg Lawson is a violinist and music arranger who has played with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and has led performances with Scotland's Grit Orchestra.

Mull musician Sorren Maclean also performs on the album, which was co-produced by his father, Gordon Maclean, in his Tobermory studio.

Gordon Maclean said that it was important to record it on the island.

"We could have written and recorded it in Glasgow, but that wouldn't have been as meaningful as doing it on the island where the plane went missing and where he was found," he said.

The names of the tracks are linked to different parts of the story, such as Glenforsa, Trip to Broadford, and Miss Grainger.

Shaw said: "It felt like we had to commemorate the life and legend of this musician with some specially recorded new tunes."