Called up on 1 September 1939, he was commissioned in July 1940. He converted to Spitfires and joined No 64 Squadron before the end of the month, moving to No 19 Squadron in September. On the 28th of the month he was shot down and received a flesh wound but found that his hood was jammed. He managed to crash land at Hawkhurst in the Kentish High Weald. He was treated by a local doctor, given lunch by the Army and returned to the squadron’s base at Fowlmere.
Richard Jones went back to No 64 Squadron in November. He joined de Havilland as a test pilot in 1941 and spent the rest of the war in that capacity. He was a Flight Lieutenant when he left the RAF in 1946 and later served again in the Volunteer Reserve. He worked at a car dealership in Oxford and as an usher at the City’s magistrates’ court. He died in 2012.
