Eric Gordon Barwell

Eric Gordon Barwell was born on 6 August 1913 in Clare, Suffolk, and educated at Wellingborough School before working in the family engineering business. He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1938, was commissioned in December 1939, and posted to No. 264 Squadron, flying the turret-armed Boulton Paul Defiant. Over Dunkirk on 29 May 1940 he and his gunner destroyed a Messerschmitt Bf 109 and two Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers; with his engine failing, he ditched in the Channel and struggled to keep his unconscious gunner afloat until a Royal Navy destroyer rescued them. He fought through the Battle of Britain and turned to night fighting, downing a Heinkel near Beachy Head in April 1941, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Commanding No. 125 Squadron and later flying Beaufighters and Mosquitoes, he added further victories and a V-1, earning a Bar to his DFC in 1944. He left the RAF a wing commander in 1945 and died on 12 December 2007.