John Ambrose Butcher

John Ambrose Butcher was a Royal Air Force airman who served as a Leading Aircraftman, qualified as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. By early 1940 he was crewing Lockheed Hudson reconnaissance aircraft, the type having recently entered RAF service with units such as No. 224 Squadron, and was flying with a photographic detachment tasked with recording the camouflage of home airfields. On the afternoon of 3 March 1940 his Hudson, serial N7334, was photographing RAF stations in the south-east of England when, near Gravesend, it was mistaken for a hostile aircraft and attacked by Hurricane fighters of No. 32 Squadron; despite the crew firing recognition flares and signalling, the Hudson was shot down in a tragic friendly-fire incident and burst into flames. Butcher, then aged 26, was killed along with the pilot, Flying Officer Sydney Dennis Slocum, and the photographer, Leading Aircraftman Ronald Arno Mutton, while the second pilot, Sergeant John Reid, baled out and survived. Butcher is buried in Northwood Cemetery, Middlesex (Section H, Grave 164), and his service was formally recognised in the London Gazette of 9 July 1940.