The two naval officers whose photographs appear with this blog flew together many times over a long period. Their Distinguished Service Cross awards were gazetted on the same day for the same action.

On 8 May 1941, Lieutenant Commander Rupert Claude Tillard and his observer, Lieutenant Mark Fownes Somerville, were killed together. Flying from HMS Ark Royal in the Mediterranean, the Fairey Fulmars of No 808 Naval Air Squadron, commanded by Tillard, attacked a force of Italian SM 79 bombers but were then bounced by CR 42 fighters, with the CO’s Fulmar being shot down.

Their partnership included the time of the Battle of Britain, but when the Battle of Britain Clasp was announced in 1945 Tillard qualified posthumously and Somerville did not. During the Battle, 808 flew from Castletown in Caithness, with the defence of the naval base at Scapa Flow, Orkney, being a key concern. It was deemed, however, that with such simple navigation there was no need to risk two men in each aircraft and the observers stayed on the ground, which meant the pilots earned the Clasp and the “Os” missed out.

Rupert Tillard had been seconded to the RAF before the war. He is buried in Enfidaville War Cemetery, Tunisia.

Mark Somerville was the nephew of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville and was under his uncle’s ultimate command when he died. His body was not recovered and his name appears on the Fleet Air Arm memorial at Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Mark Somerville

Rupert Tillard married Yvonne Sawyer in 1933

Tall stories, or potential tall stories, develop around all historical events. In the case of the Battle of Britain there is, for example, the idea that 18 August 1940 was “The Hardest Day”. This is often quoted as though it were some official pronouncement. There seems, however, no reason to doubt the claim of the late Alfred Price that he invented the term as the title for his excellent book about 18 August.

Whether that Sunday really was the hardest day is a matter of definition and point of view. A Hurricane pilot who was around at the time once told me most firmly that the hardest day of fighting was 31 August. No doubt there are other opinions.

A persistent tall story of the Battle of Britain is the idea that, on 15 September, a Dornier was rammed by a Hurricane as the bomber was about to attack Buckingham Palace. One can pick a colander full of holes in this claim, starting with the evidence that when the Hurricane flown by Sergeant “Arty” Holmes of No 504 Squadron arrived on the scene, members of the Dornier’s crew were already taking to their parachutes.

Holmes would later give varied accounts of what happened next, sometimes egged on by journalists, but his combat report stated: "On my fourth attack from the port beam, a jar shook my starboard wing as I passed over the E/A [enemy aircraft] and I went into an uncontrollable spin. I think the E/A must have exploded beneath me."

Yet people repeat fictitious versions of the event and even put up plaques to commemorate them.

The media has a lot to answer for, too, in the case of who was the youngest pilot to fly in the Battle. Many stories over the years have claimed that it was Pilot Officer Geoffrey Wellum of No 92 Squadron. At least three, however, were younger and the, youngest for whom we have a birth certificate was Pilot Officer (Martyn) Aurel King, of No 249 Squadron, who was two months Wellum’s junior. He was lost, aged 18, in the action on 16 August for which Flight Lieutenant “Nick” Nicolson was awarded the VC.

We could go on. It would, for instance, take a much lengthier article than this to explore the fictions perpetrated in accounts of the interfaces between Dowding, Park, Sholto Douglas and others.

At the same time, the Trust is well aware that there are errors to be put right in the Database. We are constantly working to eliminate them, and all help is gratefully received.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

On 15 September 1940 the main part of the Dornier attacked by Sergeant Holmes was photographed tumbling towards the forecourt of Victoria station.

Well into this century it was still possible for authors, researchers and journalists to meet and interview aircrew who had flown in the Battle of Britain. However, as the number available reduced, the survivors found themselves frequently having to repeat stories. Some wrote them down as handouts for enquirers.

I remember one Hurricane pilot, who had been forced to bale out during the Battle, being taken by a TV film crew to the Kentish field where his aircraft had fallen. For the benefit of the camera he expressed suitable interest in having the opportunity to study the spot. Then he did the same for another film crew.

Several authors produced books of reminiscences of the Few and those who served with them. One, Lost Voices of the Battle of Britain by the late Max Arthur, (first published 2010), has just reappeared as a paperback from August Books. Leaving aside the absurdity of the title (stories found by Mr Arthur in recordings, written reminiscences, etc, were anything but lost), the book contains excellent material and is well worth reading.

For example, Frank Carey (Hurricane pilot, No 43 Squadron) described how he was “ably assisted by an Me 109” in the shooting down of a Ju 88.

We have Jean Mills, a WAAF plotter and tracer at Duxford, presumably thinking back to 7 September 1940: ‘I remember coming on for a night shift and seeing a great glow in the south-east, like the biggest sunset you ever saw, and we said to the guard, “What’s that?” and he said ”Oh, that’s London burning”. That was the first time, really, that I felt it in the pit of my stomach.’

There are a few words that paint a picture of the suffering of the East End better than any statistics.

Max Arthur did not confine himself to events of 1940. He quoted Tim Vigors (Spitfire pilot with No 222 Squadron) recalling how his homesickness and shyness prevented him from making friends immediately at prep school.

Then he encountered another boy on his own, flying a model aircraft. Close friendship followed. The model enthusiast was Henry Maudslay (‘Maudsley’ according to the book), who also became an RAF pilot, although in Bomber Command. He earned a DFC and then, as a squadron leader, was appointed ‘B’ Flight commander with the formation of No 617 Squadron.

On the night of 16/17 May 1943, he and his crew (Sergeant Marriott, Flying Officer Urquhart, Warrant Officer II Cottam, Pilot Officer Fuller, Flying Officer Tytherleigh and Sergeant Burrows) attacked the Eder Dam but were shot down and killed on the homeward flight.

Tim Vigors was 82 when he died in 2003.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Tim Vigors

Alongside the Database of the Few, the collection of documents, books and artefacts held at the National Memorial is constantly growing. The intention is that historians, authors and researchers should find there an outstanding collection of material on the Battle of Britain and the events of 1940 more generally.

A significant recent addition to the collection is a vivid memoir of 1940 written by Mrs Mary Connor, née Dodsley (1917-2001), who escaped from the island of Jersey as the Germans approached, married a Spitfire pilot and therefore had a close and emotional view of the Battle of Britain.

The pilot concerned was the 6ft 4in Flying Officer Francis “Frank” Connor, born in Burma and an old boy of Victoria College, Jersey. He served in the Battle of Britain with No 234 Squadron.

Frank and Mary’s wedding took place while he was at Aston Down converting to Spitfires. Many wartime brides would have had fellow feeling with Mary when she wrote: “Our wedding was far different from the one I had always visualised. I had no wedding dress, no trousseau, no cake, no church and none of our friends other than my sister-in-law. I was not even certain that the date was acceptable or that Frank would get the time off!”

On 16 August 1940, Frank Connor was shot down in combat with Bf 109s off Portsmouth and baled out, spending five hours in the sea before he was rescued by the Royal Navy. He had many pieces of metal embedded in his body and, despite Mary’s best efforts with tweezers, some remained to intrigue radiographers when he had X-rays in later life.

Frank Connor spent most of the rest of the war as an instructor. He left the RAF in 1946 in the rank of Squadron Leader, became an air traffic controller in Jersey and died in 1982.

The Memorial Trust is most grateful to Mary and Frank Connor’s daughter, Rosemary Sanchez de Vega, for providing a copy of her mother’s memoir for the collection at Capel-le-Ferne.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Flying Officer Frank Connor.

Two distinguished former Spitfire pilots appear in relaxed mode in this photograph, newly added to the Database collection. The occasion is not known, but from what is on the back, it is likely to be an event organised by the Battle of Britain Fighter Association.

Squadron Leader “Paddy” Barthropp, on the left, was a Flying Officer on Spitfires with No 602 Squadron in the Battle of Britain, having been one of the Army Co-operation pilots who volunteered for Fighter Command. In May 1942, Barthropp was serving with No 122 Squadron when he became a prisoner of war. During a Ramrod (bomber operation intended to lure Luftwaffe fighters to combat with the escort), his Spitfire was shot down by an Fw 190 flown by Hauptmann Karl Willius. The two met later that day. Willius was killed on the Eastern Front in 1944.

Paddy Barthropp became a serial attempter of escapes and was a participant in The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III, Sagan in March 1944. However, he was still in the tunnel when the German guards discovered what was happening. He did later get away from another camp but was recaptured.

After leaving the RAF in 1957, Barthropp ran a luxury car hire business. He died in 2008.

Also in the photograph is Squadron Leader Henry Baker, who flew Spitfires with No 41 Squadron in the Battle and then moved to No 421 Flight. Like Paddy Barthropp, he was one of the great number of promotions from Pilot Officer to Flying Officer on 3 September 1940.

Baker went on to serve in north Africa and commanded No 229 Squadron in Malta. After leaving the RAF in 1946 he worked in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Peru before achieving a successful business career in the UK. He died in 2013.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Squadron Leaders “Paddy” Barthropp and Henry Baker

Trying to compile a list of the Few by nationality is a thankless task. There are so many debatable points, starting with achieving a definition of what constitutes ‘nationality’ or ‘citizenship’.

For example, the nationality acts of Australia and New Zealand had not been enacted at the time of the Battle. Thus the argument has been put forward that, strictly, there were no citizens of those countries in the Battle, they were all British.

For Ireland, it becomes really tricky. All, or virtually all, of those who earned the Clasp, and who we now describe as Irish, were born British because their births occurred before the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty on 6 December 1921. We really ought to analyse what steps each of the ‘Irish’ Few had taken to change that position. To this day, Irish athletes debate whether, in, say, the Olympic Games, they wish to represent Ireland (the Republic as it is now) or Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The list of problems goes on. Some are tempted to define nationality as “country of birth”. That immediately leads to the problem of those born in the UK whose families emigrated when they were young. Some people held more than one passport, as they do today. Which country do we list them under?

The United States did not enter the war until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Until then, and perhaps even later, Americans wishing to fly in the Allied cause might find it expedient to claim to be Canadian or to seek to join the Royal Canadian Air Force rather than the RAF.

The number of Americans who qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp is often put at nine, although at least one of those is clearly open to debate. Now the figure certainly has to be reduced.

This is because of a letter which has just emerged and is now in the Memorial Trust’s archives at Capel-le-Ferne. It was sent by Flight Lieutenant J K Haviland to a researcher and is dated 5 May 1994. Haviland has been listed in the Database and in Men of the Battle of Britain as American, as he is in most other major sources. In 1940 he was a Pilot Officer and flew Hurricanes with No 151 Squadron.

In his letter Ken Haviland wrote: “I have gained some fame because I was born in the USA, and I am known as ‘the only surviving American’, although I was a British citizen at the time [of the Battle of Britain].”

So we have yet one more discouragement to the compilation of lists of the Few by nationality. Haviland’s Database entry has been amended.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

J K Haviland

The radar pioneer Sir Robert Watson-Watt has at least one thing in common with the Battle of Britain pilots Roland Beamont and Christopher Deanesly. In books and articles, all three frequently have their surnames misrepresented. Beamont frequently becomes ‘Beaumont’ while ‘Deanesley’ is perhaps the most common mangling of a cognomen created in Victorian times by the amalgamation of ‘Deane’ and ‘Sly’.

In the case of the scientist, there is more subtlety. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), his father was Patrick Watson Watt, a carpenter and joiner, and Robert grew up with no hyphen. It was not until he was knighted in 1942 that Sir Robert adopted the name Watson-Watt, so a hyphen in any description of his activities before that year is incorrect.

From 1936 Watson Watt was superintendent of the Bawdsey research station at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk. It is cheering now to note the progress being made, by the Bawdsey Radar Trust, in the preservation of Bawdsey, so much a location associated with victory in the Battle of Britain.

Watson Watt was based at Bawdsey for a relatively short time, but the two are linked for all time. How reassuring to be reminded that the great have foibles like the rest of us. The ODNB in its description of his life remarks that:

“Both in speech and in writing his style was usually elaborate, sometimes to the point of ornateness, which led one colleague to comment, 'He never said in one word what could be said in a thousand'; but by contrast the most vital thing he ever wrote, his report to the Tizard committee on the feasibility of radar in February 1935, was a model of brevity and clarity. Without the crucial step that it represented, and without the drive that he put into its realization, the battle of Britain would have been much more difficult to win, and could have been lost.”

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Sir Robert Watson-Watt

The exhibition gallery at Bawdsey. Courtesy andrewhendry.com

To hold in this database a photograph of every one of the Few is an ambition of the Memorial Trust. The search is constant, and we are edging closer and closer while still having some way to go.

Sometimes new photographs are donated by relatives or friends of the flyer concerned. On other occasions researchers are kind enough to share with us pictures they have unearthed. We work closely with the website of the Battle of Britain London Monument and photographs pass between the two organisations. Old books, jumble sales, car boot sales and the internet are all possible sources.

We take account of the law of copyright, which is more complicated than is sometimes supposed. We may, on occasions, inadvertently breach a copyright, though no complaint has ever been received.

Any photograph of somebody in the database is welcome. The ideal is an image from the Battle of Britain. Failing that we prefer pictures taken during the Second World War or its prelude or aftermath. The subject in uniform rather than civilian clothes is preferable. If no photograph is available, an artist’s representation is the next best thing.

The latest addition to our collection is photographs of Sergeant (in the Battle) K L O Blow, who earned the Clasp as an observer in Blenheims of No 235 Squadron. They came from someone who knows the family and we are delighted to have them.

Ken Blow would be killed in 1943 when a No 487 Squadron Mosquito was shot down by flak and hit a tree when forced-landing at Den Ham, the Netherlands. Blow, who had been awarded the DFC, and his pilot, Flight Sergeant T Marr, are buried in the local cemetery.

If you have photographs of the Few, please do make contact. We would welcome them to the collection, whether or not we already have illustrations of the man or men concerned.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Even 84 years after the event it is still possible for a name to be added to the ranks of the Few. This was the case in September 2024 when Air Historical Branch (RAF), the only authority on the matter, announced that it had considered the case of Flight Lieutenant Ronald Thomson, raised by the author Mark Hillier, and concluded that Thomson was entitled to the Battle of Britain Clasp to go with the 1939-1945 Star.

Why has it taken so long? Having joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in August 1939, Thomson completed his training at an Operational Training Unit, making him rather more qualified than some of his colleagues, and joined No 616 Squadron at Kirton-in-Lindsey on 6 October 1940, to fly Spitfires.

In a sense he was unlucky. Squadron personnel in 1940 had more important things to do than push a pen in the assiduous recording of squadron life. In this regard 616 was possibly less assiduous than most. No operational sortie by Thomson was recorded in the operations record book during the rest of October. Thomson therefore hovered on the fringes of the Few without being a member.

In the third edition of Men of the Battle of Britain in 2015 Ken Wynn included a number of ‘possibles’ including Thomson. To avoid confusion, their mini-biographies appeared in italic.

Now Ronald Thomson’s logbook has come to light. In studying it, Mark Hillier noted that, on 20 October, Thomson recorded that he had been scrambled to deal with an X-raid, a report of an unidentified aircraft.

In the case of the previous man elevated to the Few, Sergeant J E W Ballard, an X-raid investigation had been deemed all that was needed, and so it proved with Thomson. If there is ever another edition of Men of the Battle of Britain, Sergeant Thomson will not be in italic. Now comes the work of researching his RAF service and his wider life, and obtaining a photograph, so that this Battle of Britain pilot may take his proper place in the history of the Battle.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Congratulations to Group Captain John Hemingway on recently attaining his 105th birthday. As far as we know he is the only survivor of the men who qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp.

All of us, not least historians and journalists, like precise statements. However, the Memorial Trust regards the caveat, ‘as far as we know’ as important for a number of reasons. The Trust is conscious that a significant number of the Few chose to disappear from view in the years after the Second World War. Some had no taste for the celebrity their status could bring them. Some believed, with great modesty, that their part in the Battle of Britain had been so small that they did not deserve to be regarded as one of the Few.

There are so many examples. One Hurricane pilot died in the west country some years ago, leaving his family instructions that the RAF and associated bodies were not to be informed of his death. Around the same time, news of the passing of a Spitfire pilot in East Anglia came as a considerable surprise. In the case of one Blenheim observer, there was no hint of his departure until 18 months after the event, when a staff member at the Sussex old people’s home in which he had been living, made a phone call. It looks as though another former Blenheim crew member also lived out his final years in Sussex. At any rate, somebody with the same initials and uncommon surname did.

That is why it is best not to assert that Group Captain Hemingway is the last survivor from the aircrew of the Battle of Britain, although, of course, every passing day makes it more likely that he is.

Much the same is true of various other matters concerning the summer and autumn of 1940. It is not possible to know precisely how many Allied aircrew took part because new names are still uncovered from time to time. That is one reason why we do not know, for instance, who the youngest person or the youngest pilot was, though claims to the contrary are sometimes made. How many were killed in the Battle? To answer that we first need to know what definition of ‘killed in the Battle’ we are using.

The list of imponderables goes on. ‘As far as we know’ and ‘believed’ are very important words in the vocabulary of those who seek to uncover and record history.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Caption: Group Captain John Hemingway, DFC.

The first edition of The Battle of Britain Then and Now appeared in 1980.The editor, Winston G Ramsey, did not attempt to give a rounded account of the Battle. Instead, he produced a quirky but brilliant, door-stopping volume covering such matters as the casualties on both sides, the RAF airfields, the Battle VC and the RAF chapel at Westminster Abbey.

The book was true to the traditions of publications from Ramsey’s company, carrying plenty of photographs taken in 1940, accompanied by contemporary views of the same locations.

As a result of reading the first edition, my general interest in the Second World War was transformed into specialising in Battle of Britain research. Apparently, I was not alone in being inspired by this special book.

Now Winston Ramsey has retired and his company has been taken over by the publisher Pen & Sword, with the promise of a new multi-volume edition in 2025. There will be continuity, with some of the contributors from 1980 stepping forward again. In particular, the editor, Andy Saunders, is a survivor from 1980.

I cornered Andy and asked him a few questions.

Geoff: Why did Pen & Sword decide to produce an updated version of Then and Now?

Andy: When Winston Ramsey of After The Battle retired and sold the business to P&S recently there were very few copies of Battle of Britain Then and Now left in the stockroom. However, the title was still a good seller and initially there was a view to reprint it, but it was soon realised that much of the information in the 1980 edition had been superseded with new or additional material. For example, many of the aircraft losses - both British and German - recorded in the 1980 edition are now known to be either incorrect entries or were published with incomplete information. This was not because of any failing in respect of the first edition, but simply because new information has come to light. To a very large extent, that came about as a result of the book itself. Its publication triggered a wave of interest and research by a great many people who were inspired by the book. We now have an opportunity to weave much of that new information into this revised version. Additionally, records and archives which were still ‘closed’ in the late 1970s have become available, including RAF personnel casualty reports.

Geoff: So, will this new version be a complete rewrite?

Andy: No. It will utilise the original version in many respects. For example, the sections on RAF airfields will be unchanged apart from some minor corrections. In all other respects the authors’ original pieces will run again. Of course, in many instances the authors of those original sections are no longer with us, and we would wish to continue to honour the work they undertook. However, each airfield will have a supplementary section bringing the story up to date. These supplements will be fully illustrated and will complement the original pieces, which still stand as entirely valid accounts of the airfields in their own right. The supplements have all been written by Robin Brooks, one of the original authors.

Geoff: This brings me to the question of your personal role. Are you writing any of the additional pieces, or compiling the new lists, for example, of aircraft casualties?

Andy: My role is almost entirely as editor, bringing together all the various strands. I mentioned the pieces by Robin Brooks; in other areas, for example, Gordon Riley will be updating his original section on surviving aircraft from the Battle of Britain. In that context, much has changed and we even have ‘new’ or newly discovered airframes which can be attributed to having been aircraft which participated in the Battle of Britain. In addition, there are one or two airframes that were previously listed that possibly were not genuine Battle of Britain survivors. Also, I mentioned the aircraft losses. I've managed to coax out of retirement the original author of those pieces, Peter Cornwell. Peter has fully updated and added to that last listing so that we believe the published lists will be the most comprehensive single record of all RAF and Luftwaffe aircraft lost or damaged during the Battle of Britain.

Geoff: What about the footnotes to those losses which appeared in the original volume? By that I mean the italicised notes below each loss about wrecks that have been recovered etc? Presumably a great deal of that information will need updating? How are you going to go about that?

Andy: A good question. We have taken on board a Battle of Britain enthusiast and researcher, Mark Kirby, and his role is to update that information as far as we can. Of course, it will not be possible to assemble an absolutely definitive listing in this respect, but we think that we will end up covering the vast majority of additional pieces of information that need to be added. It is important to remember that those footnotes were never regarded as fully comprehensive or definitive. That information is only so good as that which we can glean. But Mark is doing a splendid job in pulling all these bits of information together.

Geoff: Will there be any new sections?

Andy: Actually, yes, there will be. For example, for the first time, we will be listing all RAF ground personnel who were killed during the Battle of Britain. It is an astonishingly long list, and this is being put together by Rob Pritchard and will be published in the same format as the list of aircrew casualties in the original book.

Geoff: What about the list of RAF aircrew who participated? A lot of that information is now known to be inaccurate. There are additions and deletions to be made.

Andy: That is correct. Several individuals have put in time and effort to update the original Battle of Britain roll published in the first edition. As you say, a number of aircrew members have been discovered in subsequent years who were found to have been Battle of Britain participants. Equally, others have been found who were included in error and these will be deleted. I have to thank Edward McManus and Gerry Burke for their invaluable assistance in this task.

Geoff: Are you looking to include any other elements relating to Battle of Britain aircrew, not included the first-time round?

Andy: Yes, apart from the areas already mentioned, there will be a section on the Battle of Britain National Memorial, the Battle of Britain Monument, the Battle of Britain Fighter Association and also one section on the last surviving Battle of Britain clasp holder, Paddy Hemingway. Given that Paddy was still alive during the production of this work, it seems only appropriate that we should give him this accolade. You know about the National Memorial and Fighter Association coverage of course. Thank you for your contributions.

Geoff: Will the book in its new form have the same look as the original?

Andy: Not entirely, no. For one thing the book will now be produced in four separate volumes. Broadly speaking these will cover airfields, participants, RAF losses and Luftwaffe losses. It is planned that the front cover of each volume will have a different colourised image to reflect the generality of content for that volume. The print size will also be increased, probably from 8 point to 10 point, so the look inside will be somewhat different.

Geoff: What about photographs? Will these be the same? And what about the ‘now’ images which were very much part of the ‘then and now’ approach of the original work?

Andy: Many of the photographs will be the same, but readers will notice quite a few will have been substituted with alternatives. This is partly to ring the changes, as it were, with variations on the photos used if new images could tell the same story. What we will not be doing, however, is revisiting the various sites and locations to take ‘now’ photos. Quite honestly, we have neither the time nor the budget to do that and looking back I think it is remarkable that Winston and his team managed to do that so extensively. We decided that the original ‘now’ photos from 1980 stand as their own historical record and will not be updated. I'd add that the plan is that the book should be black and white throughout, and we will not be introducing any colour imagery as we feel that would jar and detract from the original work.

Geoff: Are there any other elements of the book which will be significantly changed?

Andy: I can't think of any at this stage, but it is all still very much a work in progress and decisions would likely be taken along the way. One or two other tweaks, for example, do include a complete rewrite of my own original piece on Nicolson VC because we now know that there are elements of that story which are incorrect. This only came to light with the emergence of other documentary evidence in the past decade or so. It would be wrong to press ahead with a version which we can now demonstrate is inaccurate in some respects.

Geoff: When do you expect to complete the work, and what is the publication schedule?

Andy: It is a lot of work, but perhaps not as much as one might imagine and I am being ably assisted by a number of willing contributors and others who have offered information. The plan is that major parts of the work will be submitted for design by the end of May 2025, with a view to publication in September 2025. Initially, this may be just the first two volumes. It depends how well our work progresses. This will be an appropriate date to launch the venture, given that it is the 85th anniversary of the battle and, astonishingly, 45 years since the original version was published. That makes the time gap between the Battle of Britain and the original version less than the time gap between publication of that version and the publication of this update! I expect to be pretty much full time on the task from January onwards next year. At present I am working around other commitments and assembling pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.

Geoff: I’ve known you a long time and am, of course, well aware of your great enthusiasm for the subject of the Battle of Britain, but what on earth made you volunteer for such an apparently monumental task?

Andy: Well, I was very much involved with the first edition from the late 1970s up until publication, and so I accepted the challenge willingly when it was offered. It is something I feel passionate about and I also have an enormous amount of respect for what Winston Ramsey achieved in that remarkable first effort. It was truly groundbreaking, and I feel hugely honoured and privileged to be able to take the baton forward - but with Winston's original purpose and ethos firmly in mind. I have to say that I was flattered to be told by Winston that if anyone was going to do this then he wanted it to be me. That is quite something to live up to! As to it being a monumental task, well, I suppose it is but then I don't think it is as much of a task as some might imagine. People might look at the book and think it's huge, but the point is it isn't being rewritten. It is being revised, updated, and added to. Going forward many years from now, I like to think that somebody else would take that baton forward and update it yet further one day. The fact is, this is the definitive work on so many elements of the Battle of Britain and it is inevitable that more information will come to light. In fact, as soon as we publish there will probably be bits of information which come in too late or even render some of what we have written already out of date. Such is the nature of a work like this.

Geoff: What about the size of individual volumes and their cost. Are you able to give us any idea about this? Perhaps people are saving up already.

Andy: I'm afraid that it is one of the things that I really have no idea about or control over at this stage. I think it is fair to say that each volume will be as long as it turns out! By that, I mean we have absolutely no idea how the pagination will run. I mentioned that the print will increase from 8 point to perhaps 10 point and that there will be additional information. For those reasons alone the page count is going to be considerably more than it was in the original version. What I can say is that it will be printed on the same quality paper with the same quality reproduction of photos. Additionally, some volumes will be larger than others and I suspect the price per volume will therefore vary. However, to coin a phrase, such decisions are above my pay grade.

Geoff: Is there likely to be any information within these volumes that will come as a surprise to those who are immersed in the subject of the Battle of Britain?

Andy: The short answer is “yes”. To quantify that a little further, there are certainly things we have discovered that I think will not be generally known in the wider community of those involved in the subject of the Battle of Britain. I’d add that we’d love to hear from anyone who has information they think we may have missed or if they hold any information relevant to our update. But if I said any more about the surprising elements of these books, then it might be considered a bit of a spoiler - so it's probably best to say no more at this stage.

However, I am delighted to give you an exclusive preview of the dust jacket for Volume 1.

Choosing an image which reflects the content of this volume was always going to be challenging, for several reasons. First, the image needed to be in portrait format to 'work' on the cover. Second, it would need to be of a suitable and high resolution quality to stand colourisation. Third, it needed to have 'space' on the illustration to accommodate text without disrupting the image itself. So those were the first parameters. Next, it needed to best reflect the subject of the main content. In that respect, it was clearly the airfields - and there was little or nothing, really, that would adequately reflect either the commanders or fighter control, anyway. So it had to be an airfield image. And this one fitted all the main requirements. I appreciate some will say: “But it isn't an image from the Battle of Britain”. No, it isn't. However, the main element of this volume is the history of the RAF airfields themselves as used during the Battle of Britain, and those histories tell the story of the airfields from their inception (sometimes during the First World War) right up to the present. Thus, this pre-war image ticked all those boxes. Not only that, but the perspective of the line of Hurricanes is perfect from a design point of view. The rear of all the dust jackets will be populated by black and white images that reflect other elements of the 1940 story relevant to that volume. I hope we can share the next covers with you fairly soon.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS was talking to Andy Saunders

Andy Saunders pictured at the Pilot Officer Herbert Case display boards during a visit to the National Memorial to the Few at Capel-le-Ferne.

Brookwood cemetery near Woking in Surrey is enormous, though the first-time visitor might equally be struck by the atmosphere. That is described on the website of the Brookwood Cemetery Society as “almost rural”. Whether or not the qualifying word is required is a matter for debate.

From the 1850s, when it was opened to relieve the pressure on London burial facilities, to 2016, the cemetery was in private hands. It is now the responsibility of Woking Borough Council.

Within Brookwood is “the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom” (Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website). This contains a major RAF section. Other features include 2,400 Canadian graves of the Second World War, with 43 of them those of men who died of wounds following the Dieppe raid in August 1942.

In 2010 John Clarke, an historian of Brookwood, produced a list of 33 Battle of Britain aircrew buried or commemorated in the military cemetery and the main area.

One of the UK contingent was Flight Lieutenant Hugh Beresford of No 257 Squadron. He was killed in action on 7 September 1940 but his Hurricane, with his remains still inside, was not found on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent until as late as 1979.

“Blue Blood” Beresford received a full military burial, with the Queen’s Colour Squadron providing a bearer party.

The word ‘commemorated’ used above is important because, although one of the 33 Battle of Britain aircrew has a headstone at Brookwood, his body does not rest there. The Hurricane of Pilot Officer Jaroslav Sterbacek, a pre-war member of the Czechoslovakian Air Force, was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 110s on 31 August 1940 as he attacked a Dorner formation over the Thames estuary. It was his first and last day in action with the RAF.

Pilot Officer Sterbacek has never been found and his name appears at Runnymede. At some point somebody has provided a headstone at Brookwood, in the style used by the CWGC for Czechoslovak nationals, as a memorial to him.

It is highly likely that a further man who qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp is buried at Brookwood though, rightly, his name was not included by John Clarke. Pilot Officer John Benzie was a Canadian former soldier, on an RAF short service commission, who flew Hurricanes with No 242 Squadron. He was reported missing after the squadron had been in action over the Thames estuary on 7 September 1940 and, like Jaroslav Sterbacek, his name was eventually placed on the Runnymede memorial.

However, 36 years after John Benzie’s death, the burnt-out remains of a Hurricane were brought to the surface in a field between Theydon Bois and Loughton in Essex, with human remains also found at the scene. Eye witness evidence places the crash of the Hurricane on 7 September.

With other losses accounted for, it seems beyond doubt that the person found was John Benzie. However, that is an assessment of circumstantial evidence and proved not sufficient for the authorities. If you visit Brookwood Military Cemetery and seek out plot 22, row E, grave 1, you are probably in the presence of one of the Few but you will find that the headstone refers merely to “an unknown airman”.

John Benzie’s name does appear on the grave of his Scots-born parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1953 a stretch of water in Manitoba became Benzie Lake in John Benzie’s honour.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Hugh Beresford

Jaroslav Sterbacek

John Benzie

This year’s 1940 magazine (No 24, 2024), sent to members of the Friends of the Few, has an article on the Battle of Britain class steam locomotives and their designer, Oliver Bulleid.

The Southern Railway had a flair for publicity, and naming ceremonies were organised for 17 of the locomotives. Some of these ceremonies took place after the nationalisation of the railways, but the Southern Region of British Railways retained much the same management as its predecessor.

There was a double ceremony at Waterloo station in London on 11 September 1947 when Lord Dowding performed for ‘his’ locomotive, as well as for Winston Churchill, which, in 1965, would haul the wartime premier’s funeral train.

Others to unveil the plates on locomotives named after themselves were Sir Keith Park, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Archibald Sinclair and Sir Frederick Pile.

Sir Archie’s moment came at Waterloo in February 1948. In another double ceremony, the former Secretary of State for Air performed the honours on Biggin Hill, as well as the locomotive named in his honour. In 1952, having lost his seat in Parliament and failed in an attempt to be re-elected, he was created the first Viscount Thurso. The locomotive remains Sir Archibald Sinclair to this day.

We now regard Sir Keith Park as one of the Few, although that was not the case when the locomotives were coming into service. Other pilots who had flown in the Battle to officiate at naming ceremonies included, on 19 September 1947 at Brighton, Group Captain Douglas Bader (CO of No 242 Squadron in 1940). He named Fighter Pilot.

At Brighton in September 1948, 601 Squadron received its name from Group Captain the Hon Max Aitken, son of Lord Beaverbrook. Aitken had been a pre-war member of the squadron and had been its CO at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. In 1964 he succeeded to his father’s peerage and baronetcy but used the Peerage Act, which had gained Royal Assent only the previous year, to disclaim the peerage. He was Sir Max Aitken Bt for the rest of his life.

One woman performed a locomotive naming ceremony in this series. At Dover in June 1948, Air Commandant Felicity Hanbury named Hawkinge. She was Director of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and would become the first director of the revived Women’s Royal Air Force in 1949. Nine years earlier she had commanded the WAAF contingent at Biggin Hill.

It is now well over half a century since railway enthusiasts might expect to see and hear one of Oliver Bulleid’s ‘Pacific’ locomotives in normal revenue earning service, slipping spectacularly (partly through oil leaking on to the track) as it started its journey or pulled away from a stop. However, Battle of Britain locomotives (and the similar West Country class and larger Merchant Navy class) can still be found in action on main line specials and at preserved railways around the country.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Note: New members of Friends of the Few receive every edition of 1940, a unique annual magazine containing interesting features on Battle of Britain-inspired topics – as well as many other benefits. To join, click here.

Sir Keith Park (on left of group, glove in hand) names Sir Keith Park at Brighton.

Max Aitken, as drawn by Cuthbert Orde.

In 1963, Battle of Britain class locomotive 66 Squadron leaves Salisbury station, hauling a train from Plymouth to Portsmouth & Southsea. Dr Ben Brooksbank was the photographer.

At the start of the Battle of Britain, William Sholto Douglas and John Dunlop Urie probably did not have a great deal in common. One was an English-born (though he regarded himself as Scottish) Air Vice-Marshal and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff. The other was a Scottish Flight Lieutenant and ‘A’ Flight commander of No 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron, flying Spitfires.

Today, sadly long after they have both departed, there is at least one point of commonality. The first names by which their peers addressed them (“Sholto” and “Dunlop” respectively) seem to have the ability to cause confusion among writers.

A few years ago I was asked to express an opinion on whether a new book on the Battle of Britain should be stocked at Capel-le-Ferne. Spotting several references to a senior officer apparently with the surname “Sholto-Douglas”, was one factor in my negative reaction. Look on the internet today and you will find accounts of the exploits of a non-existent Spitfire pilot with the name “Dunlop-Urie”.

The incident for which Dunlop Urie is perhaps best remembered occurred on 18 August 1940, one of the days of very heavy fighting in the Battle of Britain. Whether Dr Alfred Price’s description of it as “The Hardest Day” can be justified will no doubt be debated for many years to come.

Answering the call to scramble from Westhampnett against the approaching menace of masses of Stukas, with fighter escort, Flight Lieutenant Urie took off in Spitfire X 4110, newly taken on charge by the squadron. Over the airfield at Ford the aircraft was raked by cannon fire from a Bf 109. Less than half an hour after he had taken off, Urie landed back at Westhampnett, with shrapnel wounds in both legs. The CO of 602, Sandy Johnstone, later referred in print to Urie having returned in, “the remains of his Spitfire” and considered it “a miracle it still flew”.

Spitfire X 4110 was eventually struck off charge, allegedly the example of the type with the shortest combat record.

The pilot recovered and led a Wing in Russia. He died in Australia in 2001.

Sholto Douglas became Lord Douglas of Kirtleside and died in 1969. In 2021 his daughter, Katharine Campbell, produced a remarkable book about him, Behold the Dark Gray Man. I wrote a review for the website of the British Modern Military History Society and my conclusion perhaps bears repeating: “Sholto Douglas will continue to be a controversial figure. What has changed is that nobody can now be taken seriously in assessing him who has not read Campbell’s scholarly volume.”

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Dunlop Urie as depicted by Cuthbert Orde.

Sholto Douglas

In rather secondhand condition, X 4110.

Naturally, fast cars, as well as fast aircraft, attracted many of the Few. This blog references, in particular, the careers of two Battle of Britain pilots who reached a high level as motorsport competitors.

Whitney Straight was American born, but had become a naturalised British citizen before the war. His widowed mother married again and, with her second husband, founded the Dartington Hall artistic and agricultural community near Totnes in south Devon.

Straight had the money to run his own motor racing team. His colleagues included Dick Seaman, who would crash fatally at the 1939 Belgian Grand Prix as a Mercedes-Benz works driver.

Alongside a business career in aviation, Straight was a member of No 601 Squadron in the Auxiliary Air Force. On attachment, he served in Norway in 1940, seeking frozen lakes from which the RAF could operate. He was injured and deafened in a bombing attack but regained his operational category in time to rejoin 601 at Exeter in late September 1940 and qualify for the Battle of Britain Clasp.

In July 1941 Straight was commanding No 242 Squadron. He forced-landed in France after being hit by flak. He was eventually interned by the Vichy authorities but escaped and returned to Britain after an absence of almost exactly a year.

During his post-war career, Straight, who left the RAF as an Air Commodore, was managing director of the BOAC airline. With his wife, formerly Lady Daphne Finch-Hatton, he had two daughters. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that he also had a son “from a thirty-year relationship with” Diana Barnato Walker.

She was a pioneering pilot who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary. Her father, Woolf Barnato, drove Bentleys to victory in the Le Mans 24 hours motor race in 1928 (partnered by Bernard Rubin), 1929 (“Tim” Birkin) and 1930 (Glen Kidston).

The glamorous annual event at Le Mans also figured in the sporting career of ‘Reggie’ Tongue, who learned to fly with the Oxford University Air Squadron and whose service in the Battle of Britain was as a Hurricane pilot with Nos 3 and 504 Squadrons. For a time during the war he was engaged to the widow of Dick Seaman, but the marriage did not take place.

Tongue competed at Le Mans in 1934. With Maurice Faulkner he brought an Aston Martin to the chequered flag in 10th place. In 1951 he was a member of the crew of a Jaguar Mk 5 in the Monte Carlo Rally. In those days merely reaching the eponymous district of Monaco, from various starting points across Europe, in deep winter, was an achievement. Reggie Tongue and his co-driver, P E Warr, set off from Glasgow, made Monte Carlo and were classified 31st.

As Le Mans features prominently in this blog, it is perhaps not inappropriate to mention Squadron Leader Johnny Hindmarsh, whose contribution to winning the Battle of Britain came as a Hawker test pilot. He was killed testing a Hurricane in 1938.

Hindmarsh had taken victory in the 1935 24 hour race, partnering Luis Fontés in a Lagonda. Susan, one of his daughters, went on to marry the post-war grand prix driver Roy Salvadori, Essex-born but of Italian extraction. The 1959 Le Mans race was won by an Aston Martin crewed by Salvadori and the American, Carroll Shelby.

Luis Fontés, who was British but with Brazilian parentage, provides another link to wartime flying but also a warning of what can happen when ‘motor racing’ becomes unofficial. Shortly after his Le Mans triumph, he was imprisoned in Britain after he collided with, and fatally injured, a motor cyclist while the worse for drink and taking part in a ‘race’ on public roads. He later joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and was killed in October 1940 in the crash of a Vickers Wellington.

Whitney Straight died in 1979 and Reggie Tongue in 1992.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Whitney Straight in motor racing mode

Reggie Tongue in a Hurricane

Dick Demetriadi, son of Sir Stephen, businessman and public servant, was a member of the ‘gentlemen’s club’ that was No 601 Squadron in the Auxiliary Air Force. He was one of eight Old Etonians killed in the Battle. When war broke out he had been employed at the Royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk.

Denis Parnall was a son of the founder of the Parnall Aircraft company. He studied at Clifton College, Bristol and went up to Downing College, Cambridge to read mechanical sciences. He was a member of the University Air Squadron, the Reserve of Air Force Officers and, later, the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Eventually he took up a permanent commission in the RAF as a university entrant.

Flying Officer Demetriadi was shot down into the Channel on 11 August during the ‘Battle of Portland’. His body was washed ashore in France and he is buried at Cayeux-sur-Mer Communal Cemetery, north west of Abbeville.

Flight Lieutenant Parnall became operational at the end of May 1940 and had achieved a number of successes before his death on 18 September. During a patrol over Gravesend he was attacked and shot down, his Hurricane crashing across the Thames in Essex. It burned out by the A12, near Furness Farm, Furze Hill, Margaretting.

Helpless and at a distance, the shooting down of Denis Parnall was witnessed by his friend and squadron comrade, Pilot Officer John Beazley. Many years later, Wing Commander Beazley would be the long-serving treasurer, and then a Life Vice-President, of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust.

The Demetriadi family home was in Wealden Sussex and it was close by, at Ditchling Beacon, that Sir Stephen donated to the National Trust the land that commemorates his son.

The Parnalls were Cornish in origin and the body of Denis Parnall was returned to the far west for burial in the churchyard of St Genesius at St. Gennys near the family home at Crackington Haven.

Denis’s brother Alan also served in the RAF. He seems to have been an Army Co-operation pilot in France in 1940 and later a staff officer. The brothers were close. It appears that they enjoyed returning to the family home and, so the online history of the Parnall business suggests, it was a habit to land aircraft on Penkenna Point.

Alan survived the war but died in 1967. Eight years earlier he had presented land at the unspoilt cove at Crackington Haven to the National Trust “in memory of his brother Flight Lieutenant Denis Parnall, RAF and all who gave their lives in the Battle of Britain 1940”.

Geoff Simpson. FRHistS

Denis Parnall

Dick Demetriadi

Crackington Haven

Ditchling Beacon

Among the Few were some talented artists. Arguably the most distinguished was the No 601 Squadron Hurricane pilot, Hugh Joseph “Huseph” Riddle.

His output as a professional artist included, in 1965, the portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned by the RAF Regiment, marking the Monarch’s role as the Regiment’s Air Commodore-in-Chief. In 1972 Riddle turned his attention to HRH Prince Edward, on behalf of members of the Royal Household, creating a portrait for presentation to the Queen and Prince Philip on the occasion of their silver wedding. A somewhat impressionistic painting of a Hawker Hurricane by Huseph Riddle is held in The Wing visitor centre at the Battle of Britain Memorial, home of the National Memorial to the Few.

We have no evidence that William Barwell Holroyd (Hurricanes, Nos 151 and 501 Squadrons in the Battle of Britain) deployed his artistic talent other than as a hobby. In 2017 some drawings of female nudes, created by him before the war, were sold on an internet site and acquired by a collector of items associated with the Battle of Britain.

Maurice Toller Whinney took up portrait painting late in life. He earned the Battle of Britain Clasp flying Hurricanes on patrols in Scotland with No 3 Squadron. He later served in special operations, made a major contribution to improving radios used by the resistance in France and worked for the Foreign Office.

This versatile man went on to earn a living in banking and became a farmer in north Devon. When he retired from the land he took up portrait painting with some success. Works attributed to him include a self-portrait in which he is in RAF uniform and, on the website Art.UK, a representation of Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC.

A distinguished artist who examined photographs of these portraits in 2023 regretted that he had not seen them “in the flesh” but wrote that they looked “very accomplished, well drawn with good attention to detail”.

Maurice Whinney’s Database entry takes up the story of the portrait of Gibson, the man who led Operation Chastise, the attack, in 1943, by No 617 Squadron, Bomber Command, on a number of German dams.

“The Gibson portrait has had a chequered history. It originally hung in West Cornwall School in Penzance which closed in 1967. At that time the portrait was presented to Helston Borough Council, whose area included Porthleven, where Gibson had spent much time as a child, his maternal grandparents having their home there.

“In 1973, separate Helston and Porthleven town councils were created, but, controversially, the portrait remained hanging in Helston Guildhall for many years. In the 1990s it was badly damaged when, according to a report in The Packet newspaper, ‘The painting was ripped ….. when a group of rogue naval ratings climbed scaffolding on the Guildhall during maintenance work and broke in. At the time it was deemed irreparable.’

“An artist in The Netherlands (where Gibson had died when a Mosquito crashed in 1944) made a copy of the portrait and it was presented to Helston. Eventually, in 2015, Helston handed over both the original portrait and the copy, as well as other items of Gibson memorabilia, to Porthleven Town Council.”

Porthleven is proud of its link to the fabled Gibson. Perhaps the part played by one of the Few in keeping his memory alive deserves to be better known.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Whinney Self Portrait

Gibson by Whinney

During the Battle of Britain some fighter pilots were highly successful and attracted much attention in the RAF and sometimes in the newspapers. Names such as Malan, Bader, Tuck, Kingaby, McKellar and Lock come to mind. There were others, but there were also some who have not registered in the popular consciousness.

One of the first Spitfire aces was Flight Sergeant Bill Franklin of No 65 Squadron, a general labourer’s son from London’s East End, but how often does his name appear in lists of the stars of Battle?

The Memorial Trust is, however, aware of his feats and an article on him appeared in 1940 magazine, no 18.

In my submission there were other kinds of hero at the time whose status should be equal with the aces, an argument recognised on the Christopher Foxley-Norris Memorial Wall at Capel-le-Ferne, where names are listed alphabetically with no indication of rank, decorations or ‘victories’.

The need for trained fighter pilots was desperate in 1940 and the result was that men were passed into the front line who, in other circumstances, would never have been selected to go to Hurricane or Spitfire squadrons. That is a major reason why so many of the Few spent much of the rest of the war as instructors, staff pilots, ferry pilots, in Bomber or Coastal Commands or in ground postings. Their talents fitted them to oppose Nazism in light blue uniforms but not in single-engined fighters once the situation became less desperate.

Surely they were equal heroes in overcoming the apprehensions they must have felt diving into massed Luftwaffe formations?

A poignant example can be found on the website of the Battle of Britain London Monument, in recollections sent to the aviation historian Andy Saunders by David Cox, a Sergeant-Pilot with No 19 Squadron in the Battle of Britain. He was recalling his friend, Sergeant H A C “Jock” Roden, and wrote: “Jock and I were the first pre-war VR Sergeant Pilots to join 19 Squadron. The result was that we were treated rather coldly by the other NCO Pilots who were all Regular with lots of service. This attitude resulted in drawing Jock and myself closer together…………

“I had no trouble flying the Spitfire and landing it. Poor Jock had trouble with the Spitfire from the start. In the first four weeks he damaged two with four landings. I think that if the CO at that time had not been shot down over Dunkirk Jock would have been posted away……..

“He never did like the Spitfire and in some ways I think he was more frightened of it than he was of the Luftwaffe!!

“As I had the next bed to him I realised he lived in a state of fear. However in no way did this state of fear stop him engaging enemy aircraft.”

Indeed it did not. On 11 September 1940, Sergeant Roden claimed a Messerschmitt Bf110 destroyed.

Cox wrote further of Jock Roden: “He was rather short, tubby, jet black hair and quite a dark complexion. Nothing really to look at - but a great favourite with the ladies. My wife, who joined me near Fowlmere, thought the world of him.”

On 15 September, now Battle of Britain Day, Sergeant Roden was engaged with Messerschmitt Bf 109s and his aircraft sustained a glycol leak. He attempted a forced-landing in Suffolk but the Spitfire hit a tree and the pilot suffered multiple injuries. He died the next day in East Suffolk Hospital, Ipswich.

Adrian Roden (as he was known to his family) was 24. He lies in Linlithgow cemetery, West Lothian.

If anyone feels inclined to make a list of heroes of the Battle of Britain, I recommend Sergeant Roden for inclusion.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Bob Tuck was one of the RAF’s first aces of the Second World War. He took command of a failing squadron during the Battle of Britain and transformed it. Later he was one of the leading figures in planning the ‘Great Escape’ from Stalag Luft III, though he was moved to another camp shortly before the break out.

He was a man of striking looks and personality, perhaps added to in a way by the long scar on his face as a result of a pre-war flying accident. He was concerned about his image and possibly not averse, occasionally, to enhancing some of the stories that fed it.

It is strange therefore that this heroic and enigmatic man, who died in 1987, hardly attracted the attention of biographers for many years. There was Larry Forrester’s book, Fly for Your Life (1956) but that reads in large part like a novel and there is little or no evidence for some of its more colourful yarns. Many years ago I asked ‘Pete’ Brothers about an incident, alleged by Forrester to have happened on 257 Squadron. His reply was, “I was there and I think if that had happened I would remember, don’t you?”

Now at last we have Stanford Tuck (Grub Street), a more orthodox biography from Dr Helen Doe. She too dismisses some of the Forrester claims. One example is the suggestion that, after Tuck and fellow Battle of Britain veteran, Flight Lieutenant Zbigniew Kustrzynski, escaped from a column of prisoners in early 1945, they fought with the Russians. In Helen’s more believable version they eventually gave themselves up to a Red Army officer and spent some adventurous and risky weeks in Russian hands before they boarded the temporary troopship, Duchess of Richmond, at Odessa, with other former prisoners, and sailed to safety. They did not bear Russian arms.

As any biographer should, Helen Doe wanders down some of the byways of her subject’s life. I had forgotten, perhaps I never knew, that, in 1956, he was one of the earliest subjects of the British version of the TV programme This is Your Life.

His fellow escaper, Kustrzynski, was flown from Canada for a reunion and present too was “Titch” Havercroft, a Sergeant Pilot on 92 Squadron in 1940 but a still-serving Wing Commander in 1956. Another guest was Albert Stringer. He had entered Tuck’s life as landlord of The Ferry Inn at Horning in Norfolk, not far from RAF Coltishall. On 26 April 1941 Mr Stringer was one of the few survivors when a stray bomb hit The Ferry. Tuck and his future wife had left shortly before.

There is ever confusion about Tuck’s name. He was born with the surname Tuck and the given names, Roland Robert Stanford. He joined the RAF as R R S Tuck and therefore he appears as “Tuck” on the Memorial Wall at Capel-le-Ferne, in Men of the Battle of Britain and on the London Monument.

Helen Doe pinpoints what she feels is the first written use of “Stanford Tuck” as a surname, on a combat report during the Battle of Britain, and she puts forward two possible reasons. Later, “Stanford-Tuck” made an appearance as well.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

On This is Your Life in 1956. In the foreground from left to right, the show’s host, Eamonn Andrews, Titch Havercroft and Bob Stanford Tuck

The churchyard at Warmwell, near Dorchester, is a place for peaceful reflection on the RAF losses in the Battle of Britain. Studying the six graves of pilots killed in action in the Battle offers a reminder of the diverse nature of Fighter Command in 1940.

RAF Warmwell was part of No 10 Group. The airfield closed immediately after the war and much of it disappeared through sand and gravel extraction.

Part of Holy Trinity Church is over 700 years old, but considerable alteration has taken place, including in Victorian times.

Pilot Officer Harold John Akroyd, born in Oxfordshire, worked for Middlesex County Council before the war and was a member of the RAFVR. He seems to have had outstanding flying ability.

Early in the war, as a Sergeant, he joined No 152 Squadron at Acklington, where he was known as "John". In July 1940 the squadron moved to Warmwell.

On 7 October the squadron was scrambled, with Pilot Officer Akroyd flying as Blue 3, to meet a large formation of Junkers Ju88s, with fighter escort. In the ensuing engagement Akroyd's Spitfire was hit, perhaps by fire from a Messerschmitt Bf110, and caught fire. He crash-landed at Shatcombe Farm, near the hamlet of Wynford Eagle, and was admitted to hospital in Dorchester with severe burns.

John Akroyd died the next day with his wife Irene at his bedside.

Sergeant Alan Norman Feary came from Derby and was brought up by his widowed mother. He was employed in the Borough Treasurer's department and learned to fly with the RAFVR.

Feary became an ace flying Spitfires with No 609 Squadron. On 7 October his aircraft was hit over Weymouth during a surprise attack by Messershcmitt Bf109s. He eventually baled out but was too low for his parachute to open properly.

Squadron Leader Michael Robinson wrote to Alan Feary’s mother: “His reputation as a brave and fearless fighter pilot was handed over to me by his previous commanding officer and I can say that he died as he would have wished – for his country. It would be difficult to tell you how much he will be missed by his fellow pilots.”

Sergeant Jaroslav Hlavac was born in Czechoslovakia and served in the air force. After the arrival of the Germans he reached France and joined the Foreign Legion and then the French Air Force. He escaped the Germans again and came to England, where he became a member of the RAFVR and spent time with three fighter squadrons.

On 10 October, he was lost on his first operational patrol with No 56 Squadron, being shot down in an engagement with Messerschmitt Bf109s over Wareham, Dorset. His Hurricane crashed on Manor Farm, at the hamlet of Worgret.

Flight Lieutenant John Connelly Kennedy, "John" to his family but "Jack" at school and in the RAF, was born in Sydney. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1936 and transferred to the RAF in 1937.

In the Battle of Britain he was a flight commander with No 238 Squadron. On 13 July Jack Kennedy crashed near Weymouth after attacking a German bomber during a convoy protection sortie.

Squadron Leader Terence Gunion Lovell-Gregg was born in Wanganui, New Zealand. He joined the RAF in 1930. Early in the Battle of Britain he became CO of No 87 Squadron at Exeter.

At about 17.30 on 15 August, 87 was scrambled to meet an incoming German force. The available Hurricanes took off, led by the CO.

Pilot Officer Roland Beamont was one of the pilots following “Shuvvel” Lovell-Gregg. He was quoted by the author Norman Gelb as saying that there were eight aircraft from 87 and recalling a radio message that 100 Germans were coming in over Cherbourg. Then the controller said that it was 120 plus, then it was 150 plus south of Portland heading north. Next the sky was “full of those black bees - a great mass of them." They were stepped up, with Stukas at the front and stretched back across the Channel. Clearly the Portland naval base was the target.

Beamont heard Lovell-Gregg over the radio say: "Come on chaps let's surround them."

In the ensuing attack Lovell-Gregg's Hurricane was hit and caught fire. Witnesses described the Hurricane circling in the vicinity of the village of Abbotsbury. Then it skimmed across a wood and a ploughed field and crashed into a copse. A farmer's son found the pilot lying dead at the scene. His body had bullet wounds.

Flight Lieutenant Ian Gleed became acting CO and represented the squadron at Lovell-Gregg's funeral. In his book, Arise to Conquer, Gleed wrote that "the world seemed too beautiful for a funeral".

Sergeant Sidney Richard Ernest Wakeling was born in London. He joined the RAFVR in the spring of 1939 and arrived at No 87 Squadron in early July 1940.

August 25 was a day of major German attacks on targets in Dorset. Over Portland at about 6pm the still very inexperienced "Stump" Wakeling was shot down. Pilot Officer Beamont saw a burning Hurricane falling past him. It hit the ground on a hillside at New Barn, Bradford Peverell near Dorchester.

Six men to whom, in the words of a poem by their comrade, Christopher Foxley-Norris, “you owe the most of what you have and love today”.

Geoff Simpson. FRHistS

Who were the potential civilian or military leaders whom fate decided would not survive the Battle of Britain? Keith Lawrence once described to me, in terms approaching hero worship, the respect in which Pat Hughes was held on No 234 Squadron. Richard Hogg, who stares somewhat insouciantly from his most published photograph, was a prize winner at Cranwell. Peter Townsend bemoaned the loss of the leadership qualities of Harry Hamilton, one of his flight commanders.

There are plenty of other candidates, and the answer to the question is, of course, beyond our reach. It is a fact, though, that a fair number of the survivors rose high. To give just three examples from business, Barrie Heath and “Cocky” Dundas both became company chairmen and were knighted. William Walker is perhaps best remembered now for his urbane presence among the last survivors and his late emergence as a published poet, but he chaired the brewer, Ind Coope.

Then there were the three among the Few who became Chiefs of the Air Staff and Marshals of the Royal Air Force, two of them also going on to be Chiefs of the Defence Staff.

John Grandy commanded No 249 Squadron in the Battle and was CAS from 1967 to 1971. Tom Neil, a Pilot Officer under Grandy in 1940, wrote of him that: “By his own admission, he was not the world’s best fighter pilot”, but he was a person “of considerable charm and a most capable administrator”. Neil also had Grandy “rising apparently without effort over the years”.

The issues Grandy had to deal with as CAS included the final stages of withdrawal from the Persian Gulf and the Far East, finding economies (perhaps that applies to every CAS) and the transfer of the nuclear deterrent role to the Navy.

Sir Andrew Humphrey held the RAF’s highest appointment from 1974 to 1976 before becoming Chief of the Defence Staff. After only months in that post he died at the age of 56 of pneumonia. His contribution to the Battle of Britain had been as a Spitfire pilot with No 266 Squadron.

For the historian Air Commodore Henry Probert, Andrew Humphrey was “a chief whose great abilities as a leader and an advocate of air power were matched by superb skill as a pilot”.

Humphrey’s successor as CAS (1976-77) was Sir Neil Cameron. He had flown Hurricanes in 1940 with Nos 1 and 17 Squadrons and he was the only one of the three future chiefs to be an NCO pilot in the Battle.

Group Captain Patrick Tootal, secretary of the Memorial Trust, served under Neil Cameron. Patrick’s recollection is: ”Neil Cameron was a wonderful man, clever, articulate and a born leader. To watch him engage with junior ranks on AOC’s inspections was a joy as he could put them at ease. He was a workaholic.

“He was a great believer in ensuring that all RAF officers were well versed in RAF history and defence issues. He instituted when he was Air Member Personnel the Director of Defence Studies. He maintained that the RAF could only survive and hold its own with the sister services with well-educated officers. He once said to me: ‘I am not too worried if a certain officer was a good squadron commander, I need an officer who can hold his own in Whitehall’.”

Cameron became Chief of the Defence Staff. After stepping away from service life he was principal of King’s College, London. Another appointment was as chairman of the trustees of the RAF Museum.

Once Neil Cameron ceased to be CAS the post was held by officers too young to have flown in the Battle of Britain.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Cameron N

Humphrey A

Grandy J

As the scope of information contained in database entries widens, so the range of sources increases. Primary sources, the records, accounts and objects of the time, will always take precedence but there is much else to give us a fuller picture.

More and more people are adding to the work of Ken Wynn and his original helpers. An example is the entry, recently considerably expanded, for John Hampton Rowden. As a Pilot Officer he flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain with Nos 64 and 616 Squadrons. Edward McManus, of the Battle of Britain London Monument, made contact with John Rowden’s family. Members of the Henley Archaeological & Historical Group, notably David Boulton, offered their expertise in the part of modern Oxfordshire associated with Rowden’s youth. Gaps always remain and the work is never ending in the most pleasant way.

John Rowden and his siblings were born on the Golder Manor Farm estate at the village of Pyrton near Watlington. This appears to have been the location of the family home of Rowden’s mother, who was Miss Hampton before her marriage.

Nearby, near Benson, was the farm run by John’s father. In those times it was just in Berkshire. Today helicopters from RAF Benson can be heard on police and air ambulance, as well as military, duties and the M40 is not far away, but the area retains the charm sometimes expressed as: “This is what we were fighting for”. In 2022 the Golder Manor Farm estate was being offered for sale for £25m.

There was much tragedy in John Rowden’s childhood, with the deaths of both his parents, and wartime added to the toll. John himself was killed during a sweep on 9 April 1941.

One of his brothers, Sergeant George Douglas Rowden, was also lost in action with the RAF. On 21 October 1944 he was a member of the crew of a Wellington of No 104 Squadron, flying from Foggia in Italy to attack the marshalling yards at Maribor, Yugoslavia, now in Slovenia. The aircraft did not return. Killed with Sergeant Rowden were Sergeants Spencer, Bell, Asquith and Stephenson.

Edward McManus has obtained the wording of the letter written, on the day after John Rowden died, to his widow by Squadron Leader Barrie Heath, Battle of Britain veteran and CO of 64 Squadron.

In part it reads:

“No doubt by this time you will have heard of the bad news about John. The whole Squadron join me in expressing our real sympathy with you and telling you of our confidence that he will be heard of soon as a prisoner of war.

“I have not known him long, only three weeks, but already look upon him as a good friend and a really sound and reliable Officer. He was recommended to be a Flight Lieutenant only two weeks ago.

“The circumstances were as follows: We took off together from here in the morning and set course for France to see if we could find some German aircraft among the clouds. When near Dunkirk over the sea we sighted some Messerschmitt 109s, John and I attacked and got separated. I called him up on the radio and he replied that he was O.K., flying in cloud and had shot one German down (this has been credited to John). I then replied that this was good fun and he replied ‘Yes, wizard’.

“He then reported himself to be three miles inland. I ordered him to fly out over the sea again in cloud. He acknowledged this order. Some ten minutes later I could get no reply from him…….”

There is also a letter to Mrs Rowden from the squadron adjutant, referring to the disposal of John’s Singer car. Perhaps they were acquainted. In those far more formal times the letter starts, “Dear Catherine”.

The J H Rowden database entry is now much longer than it was, but we hope that even more information will be added in due course.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

John Rowden

Luftwaffe officers inspect John Rowden's crashed Spitfire. On the extreme right is Hauptmann Josef Fözö, the pilot believed to have shot down Rowden.

Many years ago I was in the company of a Royal Artillery veteran who, in 1940, had spent two and a half days on the beaches in the Dunkirk perimeter (which extended into Belgium). Eventually he got away from La Panne, courtesy of one of the ‘little ships’ and a Royal Navy sloop.

I enquired what he had seen of the RAF. He replied: “I never saw the RAF”. It was said without rancour, but others were more expressive. The New Zealand Spitfire pilot “Al” Deere forced-landed in Belgium. Eventually he boarded a destroyer and was taken to the wardroom. It was packed with Army officers and he was greeted with stony silence.

Deere recalled in his book Nine Lives that he asked: “Why so friendly, what have the RAF done?”

“That’s just it,” was the answer. “What have they done? You are about as popular in this company as a cat in the prize canary’s cage.”

These comments no doubt reflected how the people concerned perceived the situation at the time. Many of the entries in the Database demonstrate how much the RAF did strive to prevent the Luftwaffe attacking the escaping troops and the ships sent to their aid.

For instance, the mini-biography of Squadron Leader Ron Lees of No 72 Squadron contains the following:

“Over Dunkirk on June 2 1940, Lees destroyed a Ju 87. He reported firing a two-second burst at approximately 200 yards and then the Ju 87, ‘… stall turned, I did an aileron turn and followed opening fire at approx.100 yards … swinging in to dead astern. Pieces started to fly off the E/A. … The E/A went into a right hand diving turn. I followed and closed to approx. 75 yards range. … I gave a long burst of approx. 6 secs. During this burst the E/A burst into flames. I followed it down and watched it hit the ground …’ Lees expended the rest of his ammunition on another Ju 87, already under attack.”

On the morning of 28 May Sergeant Samuel Butterfield was in one of nine Hurricanes of No 213 Squadron patrolling Dunkirk. In a vivid account Butterfield reported that: “Towards the end of our patrol, about 9 Me109s were sighted. A dogfight ensued and an Me109 sailed in front of me and started climbing away from me. I opened fire at 100 yards and the second burst set him on fire. I then turned right onto another Me109 and fired one burst from astern; his port wing folded up. As I levelled out a Ju 88 flew across my path. I did a quarter attack on him. His starboard engine emitted black smoke and he half rolled into the sea.”

Eventually, overwhelmed, Butterfield baled out into the water. He was picked up by a paddle steamer and landed at Margate.

“Dunkirk” has become a synonym for “BEF evacuation”, but, of course, the British Army and the RAF went on fighting in France well after Operation Dynamo finished on 4 June. Allied troops and civilians escaped from a considerable number of Channel ports. Operation Aerial, the evacuation in western France, began on 15 June. Two days earlier RAF aircraft, still based across the Channel, launched a major effort in support of the French on the River Marne

It was not until 19 June, for example, that the Hurricanes of No 501 Squadron left Dinard in Brittany for Jersey. Two days were spent there before the squadron took up residence at Croydon.

Criticised deeply unfairly though it was, the RAF’s reputation for potency held up in some places. In mid-June a Royal Navy officer* witnessed an encounter at the tip of the Gironde estuary near Bordeaux. His superior, Commander Ian Fleming, later to achieve some repute as a writer of spy stories, berated merchant skippers unwilling to help refugees, many of them Jewish.

“if you don’t take these people on board and transport them to England, I can promise you that if the Germans don’t sink you the Royal Air Force will,” declared Fleming. His bluff was not called and the refugees were saved.

When the Battle of Britain began, people on the ground witnessed the heroism of Fighter Command, and aircrew lacking popularity in May and June became some of “the Few” of July to October.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

* The story is told in Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995.

Butterfield L S

Lees R B

Most readers of this blog will know that Fighter Command’s only VC was awarded to Flight Lieutenant James Nicolson of No 249 Squadron. “Nick” Nicolson’s fellow pilots in the engagement over the outskirts of Southampton on 16 August 1940, for which the VC was awarded, were Squadron Leader King and the unrelated Pilot Officer King who lost his life.

At least two others of the Few had a direct involvement in events leading to awards of the VC later in the war. The German capital ship Gneisenau features in both stories, perhaps a clue as to the seriousness with which the threat of these vessels was viewed.

Ralph Walter Hillman came from Edmonton, then in Middlesex, and served as an air gunner with No 22 Squadron in Coastal Command. However, he had a spell flying with No 235 Squadron and thereby qualified as one of the Few.

In the spring of 1941 the Gneisenau, together with the Scharnhorst, was at the French port of Brest. The former was temporarily moved into a more vulnerable position and the situation was reported by the pilot of a reconnaissance Spitfire, leading to the planning of various attacks.

The first of these involved three Bristol Beauforts from 22 Squadron at St Eval in Cornwall. Flight Sergeant Hillman was in the crew of Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell, along with Sergeant J P Scott, RCAF and Sergeant W C Mulliss.

At the rendezvous outside Brest, Campbell found that the other aircraft had not arrived and he decided to attack alone, flying into a wall of anti-aircraft fire. His torpedo hit the Gneisenau beneath the waterline and caused serious damage, but, in the next moments, the Beaufort crashed into the harbour with no survivors.

The citation for Campbell’s VC recorded that: “By pressing home his attack at close quarters in the face of withering fire on a course fraught with extreme peril, Flying Officer Campbell displayed valour of the highest order.” As, indeed, did his crew.

Squadron Leader Thomas Percy Gleave was CO of No 253 Squadron when he was shot down over Biggin Hill on 31 August 1940. He escaped his Hurricane by parachute but had been terribly burned. In later life Tom Gleave would argue that 31 August was the “Hardest Day” of the Battle of Britain.

At the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Gleave became one of the initiators of the Guinea Pig Club. He would devote much time throughout the rest of his life to the affairs of the Club and the welfare of its members. He became Chief Guinea Pig.

By October 1941 Wing Commander Gleave was partially recovered and was posted as Officer Commanding RAF Manston on the Isle of Thanet. On 12 February 1942 German ships including the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen made their “Channel Dash”, after leaving Brest, known as Operation Cerebus to the Germans.

It was from Manston that Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish, led by Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, set off to launch an attack. Tom Gleave considered the operation suicidal and, from Esmonde’s demeanour, he gathered that the former RAF office felt the same.

Gleave positioned himself at the end of the runway and saluted each Swordfish as it took off.

Not one returned, though five survivors were rescued from the sea. Gleave immediately submitted a report in which he recommended Eugene Esmonde for a posthumous VC, as well as awards for the survivors.

The speed with which higher authority accepted the VC nomination was such that Gleave later said that he bitterly regretted not having put forward more names for the ultimate award.

“Unique” is always a dangerous claim but is this the only example of an RAF officer making a successful VC recommendation for someone in the Royal Navy?

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

Gleave T P

Hillman R W

A significant number of Battle of Britain aircrew flew with Bomber Command later in the war. Sadly two of the air gunners were lost on the same operation to Hamburg on the night of 29/30 June 1941. Both are buried in Becklingen War Cemetery.

At that point in Bomber Command’s war a new generation of aircraft had started to enter service, though the arrival of Arthur Harris as AOC-in-C was still eight months off. Nonetheless, June and July 1941 were a turning point. That was the period studied by the civil servant D A Butt, before, in August 1941, he produced his report, addressing the Command’s accuracy.

Butt concluded that only one in three bombers, claiming to have attacked the designated target, had dropped their bombs within five miles. For targets in the Ruhr the figure was one in 10. Change at the top of the Command and in the way it operated was inevitable.

Against that background attacks were launched on a number of German cities on 29/30 June.

At 23.09 on the 29th a Short Stirling of No 7 Squadron took off from RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire for Hamburg. The skipper was Flying Officer V R Hartwright, DFM and one of his air gunners was Flight Sergeant Charles Walter Dryburgh Brown who, in the Battle of Britain, had flown in Blenheims of No 236 Squadron. The rest of the crew consisted of Sergeant T G Young, Pilot Officer H D Brander, RCAF and Flight Sergeants J R Dale, D H G Poole, DFM and A G Reading.

Over Germany the Stirling was attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf 110, flown by Oberleutnant Helmut Lent, and crashed at Zeven not far from its target. There were no survivors and the crew all lie at Becklingen.

At almost the same time as the Stirling left Oakington, a Wellington of No 115 Squadron became airborne from RAF Marham, Norfolk for Hamburg. The captain was Pilot Officer A F McSweyn, RAAF and his tail gunner was Sergeant James Vivian Gill, a Yorkshireman by birth, whose eventual entitlement to the Battle of Britain Clasp had been earned in Blenheims of No 23 Squadron. Also in the crew were Pilot Officers S W Wild and W Hetherington and Sergeants T L Davidson and E A Gibbs.

First there was a spectacular success. Approaching the target, Gill claimed a Messerschmitt Bf 109 shot down. However, an attack followed from a Bf 110, flown by Unteroffizier Herbert Ludwig, in which Gill was badly wounded. From the ground, the attack was witnessed by inmates of the PoW camp at Sandbostel.

The Wellington was abandoned by the entire crew. Gill landed in a tree. He released his parachute and fell 40 feet to the ground. He died in hospital at Sandbostel on 2 July.

Pilot Officer Wild, the second pilot, also injured, joined Gill in hospital. All the others became PoWs, although Pilot Officer McSweyn was free for three days and was captured while attempting to steal a Bf 110. He escaped on multiple occasions, eventually reached the UK and was awarded the Military Cross.

After his release the now Flight Lieutenant Wild wrote a statement, discovered by Edward McManus, in which he recorded that Sergeant Gill had continued to fire at the attacking fighter, despite his wounds and the fact that the Wellington was ablaze.

Wild recommended Gill for a posthumous award. It is not apparent what he had in mind (he made it clear that he knew that a DFM would not be awarded posthumously). The only possibilities were the VC and a mention in despatches. No VC was forthcoming and there seems to be no evidence of Gill receiving a Mention.

Geoff Simpson, FRHistS

There is no photograph of J V Gill in the Database. If anybody has one, or a better individual shot of C W D Brown, I would be delighted to hear from you at geoffsimpsonemail@gmail.com.

W H C “Bill” Warner and Charles Bacon both died with No 610 (County of Chester) Squadron in the Battle of Britain, though their deaths came in very different circumstances.

The families of the two young men exemplified the commercial powerhouse which was the north west of England 100 and more years ago. Their fathers’ activities spoke of the rivalry between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, as well as the determination of Victorian Manchester to become a major port, though Cottonopolis, as it was known, lay 40 miles from the sea.

Sir Lionel Warner had been a senior manager on the London and North Western Railway and was general manager and secretary of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. W C F Bacon had been master of a sailing ship, a founder of a firm of shipowners and shipbrokers and a director, and then chairman, of the Manchester Ship Canal Company.

Bill Warner was educated at Malvern College in Worcestershire. In this century it was still possible to come across someone at the college who remembered Warner as a prefect, kindly towards younger boys. He was commissioned in 610 in 1937 and took up full time service when the Auxiliary Air Force was embodied in August 1939. On 26 July 1940, he was promoted to acting Flight Lieutenant and became the squadron’s ‘B’ Flight commander.

By the time of his death on 16 August, Warner had been credited with the probable destruction of two Bf 109s. On that day, off Dungeness, Sergeant Arnfield of 610 sought to aid a Spitfire, apparently stricken and being attacked by Bf 109s. Arnfield damaged one of the assailants but had to break-off, low on fuel. He had witnessed the end of Bill Warner, whose name appears on the Runnymede memorial.

Charles Bacon was educated at Sedbergh School, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He went up to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a demie (half fellow) and a research chemist. His route into the RAF was via the University Air Squadron and the RAFVR. He flew Fairey Battles in France in 1940 and survived the sinking of RMS Lancastria off St Nazaire which caused the deaths of thousands of British military personnel and civilians trying to escape the German advance.

Flying Officer Bacon had been with 610 Squadron at Acklington, Northumberland, for two weeks when, on 30 September 1940, during dogfight practice, his Spitfire collided with that of Sergeant H R Clarke. Bacon died, Clarke took to his parachute and survived.

Charles Bacon is buried in Windermere (St Mary’s) cemetery in the area where his widowed mother was living in 1940. The private gravestone gives his rank as Pilot Officer.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Bill Warner is in the centre of this photograph taken at one of 610's pre-war camps. On the left is Paul Davies-Cooke, also killed in action in the Battle of Britain, and on the right is Brian Smith, who suffered serious burns in the Battle but lived into extreme old age, dying in 2013. Occasions such as this were often used in the AAF to test the social competence of potential recruits, including their behaviour when in drink. Copyright the Medcalf family.

Charles Harvey Bacon.

In October 2022, a Leicestershire County Council green plaque was unveiled on the Waggon and Horses pub in Ibstock in the county’s former coal mining district. Green plaques recognise notable people and places and nominations are voted on by local people.

On this occasion tribute was being paid to Herbert Ernest “Bert” Black, who had lived much of his life at the pub when it was run by his father. Members of his family were at the ceremony.

Bert Black was fatally wounded in action as a Hurricane pilot in the Battle of Britain. He only lived to be 26 but made much of his life. He won a scholarship to Dixie Grammar School at Market Bosworth, played cricket for the school team and a local club and was noted for his ability at hockey and billiards.

Bert was a scout and became a scoutmaster. He studied further and worked in the weights and measures inspectorate. In 1937 he began to train as a pilot in the RAFVR.

Gwendoline “Gwen” Cuthbert, a school teacher, had been Bert’s sweetheart since childhood. In 1999 she recalled her wedding day in June 1940 for the author, Michael Kendrick:

“There was a pitter-patter [of gravel] on my bedroom window. I was a bit concerned but on peering out I saw Bert standing there with a beam on his face. He told me to get dressed quickly because he had arranged to pick up a special marriage licence from Leicester: we were married at St Denys’s church that very afternoon.”

At this point Bert was home from France, where he flew Fairey Battles with No 226 Squadron. He volunteered for Fighter Command and served with Nos 32 and 257 Squadrons before moving to No 46 Squadron.

On 29 October 1940 Sergeant Black was shot down in combat with Bf 109s over Kent. The hood of his Hurricane jammed and he was badly burned, adding to serious wounds, when he eventually managed to escape.

Bert had both his legs amputated and eventually died in hospital at Ashford on 9 November. Gwen had been at his bedside throughout.

When the Dixie Grammar School Second World War memorial was put in place in 1951 the name “H E Black” was included in the list of the fallen. However, it seems to have been a surprise to all at the school when, in 2007, an approach came from the Battle of Britain Historical Society, which wished to provide a plaque in memory of Bert Black.

Since then the school has adopted its own member of the Few with respect and enthusiasm. For example, a nomination for the green plaque was made and pupils have taken Bert Black’s grave in the churchyard at Ibstock from an overgrown state to pristine condition.

Gwen Black became headmistress of several schools and never remarried. Since her death in 2004 she has been with Bert in the now restored grave. She had worried that Bert would be forgotten. He is not.

Geoff Simpson FRHistS

Sergeant and Mrs Black after their marriage in June 1940.

Pupils from Dixie Grammar School work on the churchyard grave containing Bert and Gwen Black.

Among military awards, the Battle of Britain Clasp on the 1939-1945 Star was a rarity. Many of the veterans of Fighter Command who wore the Clasp did so with great pride. Such was the status it conferred that there were plenty of sightings of the Clasp on chests where it should not have been.

A different view of the matter was held by Alexander James Morton Peace, whose death at the age of 101 was recently reported.

Peace was known to friends as “Alex” or “Charlie”. The latter nickname came from the surname he shared with Charles Frederick “Charlie” Peace, a notorious Victorian criminal.

Pilot Officer Peace joined No 74 Squadron, operating in Spitfires from Coltishall, in late September 1940. When Ken Wynn carried out his research for Men of the Battle of Britain he found evidence that “Charlie” Peace flew operational sorties with the squadron on 7, 11, 12 and 13 October.

The group of researchers who put together the list of names for the Battle of Britain London Monument was also satisfied by the evidence and the list which was produced, including Peace’s name, formed the basis for the names on the Christopher Foxley-Norris Memorial Wall at Capel-le-Ferne.

However, “Charlie” Peace, when approached on the matter, would often strongly deny that he had qualified for the Clasp, was one of “the Few” or deserved any special treatment. He was not a member of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association.

Peace moved to No 616 Squadron before the end of the Battle but did not add to his operational tally up to 31 October. Later in the war he flew on air sea rescue missions and served in the Middle East.

So there is our quandary. We celebrate Charlie Peace as one of the Few. However, we do so in defiance of his wishes. He was proud enough of his RAF service to write down some memories, so perhaps he would have accepted our thanks for that service. Geoff Simpson FRHistS