John Vincent Clarence Badger

John Vincent Clarence Badger was born on 31 May 1911 in Lambeth, London, the son of parents from County Antrim who settled in Belfast, where he was educated at Belfast Academical Institute. He joined the RAF as an aircraft apprentice in 1928 and went on to train at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, graduating in July 1933 with the coveted Sword of Honour; he subsequently served with No. 43 Squadron at Tangmere, spent time with 821 Fleet Spotter Reconnaissance Squadron aboard HMS Courageous, and held a posting at the Marine Aircraft Establishment, Felixstowe. Returning to No. 43 Squadron in June 1940 as a supernumerary, he assumed command of the squadron on 9 July 1940, leading it through the most intense weeks of the Battle of Britain in its Hawker Hurricanes over southern England. Between July and August 1940 he was credited with destroying at least ten enemy aircraft, among them Dornier Do 17s, Junkers Ju 87s, and a Heinkel He 111, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 6 September 1940. On 30 August 1940 his Hurricane was hit by Messerschmitt Bf 109s near Woodchurch in Kent; he bailed out but sustained grave injuries, including a fractured pelvis, and spent the following months at Ashford Hospital and then the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Hospital at Halton. He never recovered from those wounds and died on 30 June 1941, aged twenty-nine; he is buried at Halton (St Michael) Churchyard, Buckinghamshire, and is commemorated on the Lisburn War Memorial in Northern Ireland.