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La Gruta's Grave on Hunt Law

The World War 2 gravestone on the left, in memory of Flight Sergeant A.D.C La Gruta of the Royal Australian Air Force, has been restored by the Scottish Borders Council Property Services Department. The concrete base of the memorial, constructed in 1941, was badly eroded, NT5757 : The final resting place of A.D.C. La Gruta and has been restored with a cladding of granite blocks, and the memorial stone cleaned up. The poppy wreath was placed at an unveiling ceremony on the 8th May 2009. The 23 years old Australian pilot lost control of his Boulton Paul Defiant after taking off from East Fortune airfield on 19th August 1941 and crashed into the hillside on Hunt Law at the head of the Earnscleuch Water in the Lammermuir Hills. Pieces of the wreckage are still lying around the grave site. The memorial can be accessed from Burncastle Farm along a track for 7.5km and then for 500m across heather moorland. Flight Sergeant La Gruta’s family contributed to the cost of the repairs. The inscription on the gravestone reads:-

TO THE MEMORY OF
AUS. 400719 FLIGHT SERGEANT
A.D.C. LA GRUTA
ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE
WHO RESTS HERE
WHERE HE DIED
ON ACTIVE SERVICE
29TH AUGUST 1941
AGED 23 YEARS