Enoch Powell – a Second World War brigadier who never saw combat – once said that his biggest regret was not to have been killed by the enemy. There was also a large cohort of those too young for the war who had a similar death wish. Many tried to make it come true and often succeeded.

Post-war Britain was full of crazed young men determined to do themselves in one way or another: RAF pilots keen to prove they were as brave as their predecessors, steeplechase jockeys wearing nothing to break their falls, and Grand Prix drivers, whose deaths were regular staples of weekend news bulletins.

New Statesman