Edward Dixon Crew

Edward Dixon Crew was born on 24 December 1917 at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire. Educated at Felsted School and Downing College, Cambridge, he learned to fly with the University Air Squadron and was commissioned into the RAFVR in October 1939. Posted to No. 604 Squadron in 1940, he flew Blenheim night-fighters and then Beaufighters, opening his account during the night Blitz. On the night of 8 May 1941 he destroyed two raiders, and the Distinguished Flying Cross followed on 29 July 1941, with a Bar in June 1942 once he had passed five victories. Later flying Mosquitoes, he commanded No. 96 Squadron and became one of the RAF’s foremost killers of the V-1 flying bomb, accounting for over twenty. He ended the war credited with around fifteen enemy aircraft and held the DSO and Bar. Crew remained in the post-war RAF, rising to Air Vice-Marshal and commanding Air Forces Borneo, before retiring in 1973. He died in 2002.