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David Alexander Cummings Crooks

Flight Lieutenant · 40678 · United Kingdom

DFC ribbon
Died
1 April 1941, aged 28
Fate
Killed in action

Biography

David Alexander Cummings Crooks was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1913, the son of Alexander David and Ethel Crooks. He joined the Royal Air Force as a permanent officer in 1938 and went to war the following year, flying Fairey Battle light bombers during the Battle of France in the spring and early summer of 1940; the gallantry he showed in those operations earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 25 June 1940. By the close of 1940 he had moved to No. 263 Squadron, then re-equipping at Exeter with the new twin-engined Westland Whirlwind fighter, and became the first Canadian to take the type into combat. On the evening of 1 April 1941, Crooks took off from RAF Portreath alongside the squadron commander, Squadron Leader Donaldson, on an offensive patrol over Cornwall; the pair intercepted a Dornier Do.215 north of the Lizard, and Crooks failed to return — his Whirlwind P6989 came down in flames near Helston, almost certainly after being struck by return fire from the German bomber during or immediately after the engagement. He was twenty-eight years old. Flight Lieutenant Crooks DFC is buried at Illogan (St. Illogan) Churchyard, Cornwall, in Row 1, Grave 1; his headstone carries the inscription chosen by his family: “A son of Canada, he loved England and died defending both.”

Burial / commemoration

Cemetery
Illogan (st. Illogan) Churchyard, United Kingdom

177 others in this archive died on 1 April →

Timeline

Crew & operations

Flew as Pilot with No. 263 Squadron.

Awards