Lieut-Cdr J.R.S.Overbury served in the Royal Navy from 1943.,being granted a permanent commission in 1950.. He served with No 816 and 810 Squadrons (HMS Ocean and Theseus). He took the CFS course in 1950 and was a graduate of No.12 Course ETPS at Farnborough 1953. He was on Naval Test Squadron A and AEE between 1954-1956. He set several record, as listed below.Flying a Sea Hawk F.B.3 from Bovingdon to Schiphol he set a new point-to-point record in Class C.1 from London to Amsterdam. He flew the 224miles in 23min 39.7sec at a speed of 571.5mph. on the 29th July 1954. Another point-to-point record was set on the 2nd July 1955 between Ciampino, Rome and Luqa, Malta. Lieut-Cdr J.R.S.Overbury with Lieut-Cdr G Kable as navigator flew a Royal Australian Navy Sea Venom F(A.W).53 the 422 miles in 47min 24sec at a speed of 538mph.
He joined Saunders Roe as a test pilot in 1957 and joined Hunting Aircraft at Luton as a test pilot in 1959. On 16th November 1960 he was killed whilst flying Jet Provost T.2 G-AOUS. The aircraft disintegrated over Langford, 3 miles south of Biggleswade, Beds.
