Arthur Stewart King Scarf
Squadron Leader · 37693 · United Kingdom
- Died
- 9 December 1941, aged 29
- Fate
- Killed in action
Biography
Arthur Stewart King Scarf, known as “Pongo”, joined the Royal Air Force in 1936 and by the outbreak of war in the Far East was a Squadron Leader with No. 62 Squadron, a light-bomber unit flying Bristol Blenheims in Malaya. He had recently married, and his wife was expecting their first child.
On 9 December 1941, two days after the Japanese invasion, all the squadron’s available Blenheims were ordered to make a daylight attack on the invasion airfield at Singora, in southern Thailand. Scarf had just got airborne from Butterworth at the head of the formation when Japanese aircraft swept in and destroyed or disabled every other machine on the ground. Rather than turn back, he chose to fly on to the target alone. He pressed home his attack through heavy fighter opposition and was mortally wounded in the process. Determined to save his crew, he kept control of the aircraft and made a successful forced landing at Alor Star without injuring either of his two crewmen. He was taken to hospital but died soon after admission.
He was buried at Taiping War Cemetery in Malaysia. Because the Malayan campaign collapsed so quickly, the full story of his action was not known until after the war, and his Victoria Cross was not gazetted until June 1946. It is the only Victoria Cross awarded to a member of the Royal Air Force for service in the Far East.
Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including CWGC — Squadron Leader Arthur Stewart King Scarf VC, 62 Sqn RAF, RAF Museum — For Valour: Squadron Leader Arthur Stewart King Scarf VC and Wikipedia — Arthur Scarf. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.
Burial / commemoration
- Cemetery
- Taiping War Cemetery, Malaysia
Timeline
-
9 December 1941
Died
aged 29 -
21 June 1946
Gazetted: VC
Victoria Cross
Awards
-
Victoria Cross (VC) — gazetted 21 June 1946
On 9th December, 1941, all available aircraft from the Royal Air Force Station, Butterworth, Malaya, were ordered to make a daylight attack on the advanced operational base of the Japanese Air Force at Singora, Thailand. From this ibase, the enemy fighter squadrons were supporting the landing operations. The aircraft detailed for the sortie were on the point of taking off when the enemy made a combined dive-barribdng and low level machine-gun attack on the airfield. All our aircraft were destroyed or damaged with the exception of the Blenheim piloted by Squadron Leader Scarf. This aircraft had become airborne a few seconds before the attack started. Squadron Leader Scarf circled the airfield.
Source: CWGC casualty record: SCARF, ARTHUR STEWART KING → · Commonwealth War Graves Commission