Lancelot Steele Dixon, who first owned the Aston Martin Ulster, was the stepson (and nephew!) of Rafael Sabatini - the author of swashbucklers like 'Scaramouche.'
For more information on Sabatini go to this web site.  Note: This will open in a new window.

Lancelot was very much like Sabatini's first son, Binkie. He was outgoing, personable, and friendly. His nickname was Lanty. When the war broke out, Lanty joined the RAF and learned how to fly. On the day he got his wings, Lanty flew in a Harvard trainer over Clock Mill, Clifford, where his parents lived.. His proud parents were outside, waving at him as Lanty tipped his wings. Then something happened–no one knows quite what. But Lanty's plane went out of control, and the young pilot crashed in flames across the Wye in a field, before the horrified eyes of Christine and Rafael. The senseless tragedy of war had touched even that harmless couple far away from any of the theatres of war, in the green and peaceful countryside.

He is buried in the Hay on Wye cemetery, under a poignant monument sculpted by his mother. The plaque on the grave reads: Pro Patria Pilot Officer Lancelot Steele Dixon RAF killed Winforton 9th April 1940 in the 24th Year of his age. Mater luctuosa fecit

The sculpture is in the form of. Icarus and is reputed to be lying in the same position  that Christine Dixon found her dead son. She sculptured her sons grave ……’ hence the Mater luctuosa fecit. – (mother made this in sorrow?)

For many years Christine had nightmares about the event. But then one day in Switzerland she saw a blue mountain flower. She took some back home with her and planted them, in the shape of a plane, in the garden of Clock Mill. Perhaps she fantasized that the plane was forever overhead. Whatever, the blue flowers brought some measure of peace to her troubled mother's mind.