John Colin Mungo Park

Squadron Leader John Colin Mungo-Park DFC and Bar was born in Wallasey on 25 March 1918; his father, an infantryman, had been killed in the last weeks of the First World War. Joining No. 74 Squadron at the outbreak of war, he flew Spitfires from Hornchurch under the great South African ace ‘Sailor’ Malan, and in March 1941 took over command of the squadron. A skilled and aggressive fighter pilot, he was shot down and killed on 27 June 1941 during a fighter sweep over northern France, his Spitfire coming down near Dunkirk. He is buried in the Adinkerke Military Cemetery in Belgium.