Leonard Archibald Haines

Leonard Archibald Haines, born in late 1919 at Melcombe Regis, Dorset, was educated at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School before joining the Royal Air Force in September 1937. Commissioned as a regular officer (service number 40297), he was posted to No. 19 Squadron, the first RAF unit to receive the Supermarine Spitfire, flying from Duxford and the satellite field at Fowlmere. He opened his account covering the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 and went on to become one of the squadron’s leading marksmen through the Battle of Britain, where his steadiness in combat helped keep newer pilots alive. His Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted in October 1940, credited him with destroying seven enemy aircraft and sharing in another, his confirmed tally eventually reaching around a dozen. Late in 1940 he moved to instructing duties at No. 53 Operational Training Unit. On 30 April 1941 he was killed when his Miles Master spun in and crashed near Hounslow Barracks, Middlesex; he was 21.