Osgood Villiers Hanbury

Squadron Leader Osgood Villiers ‘Pedro’ Hanbury DSO, DFC and Bar was born on 13 September 1917 and educated at Eton, joining the RAF in 1940. He began the war flying Westland Lysanders on liaison work, but volunteered for Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and scored his first victories with No. 602 Squadron over southern England. In 1941 he went to the Middle East with No. 260 Squadron, which he came to command in the desert fighting — earning his nickname, it was said, from a moustache that gave him a Mexican look — and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and a Bar to his DFC, with eleven victories to his name. He was killed on 3 June 1943 when the aircraft carrying him home was shot down over the Bay of Biscay. He had married only eleven days earlier, and never saw the son born the following year.