Sydney John Monroe

Sydney John Monroe was born in Morden, Surrey, the son of Harold and Belle Monroe, and went on to serve as a career officer in the Royal Air Force, holding a permanent commission denoted by his service number 37685. By early 1941 he was a Flight Lieutenant serving with No. 82 Squadron, a Bristol Blenheim IV unit that formed part of No. 2 Group’s offensive against enemy shipping in the North Sea and along the Dutch coast. In April 1941 Monroe led an attack on a 3,000-ton vessel and its escort off the Frisian Islands: pressing the strike from low level despite accurate fire from flak ships, he scored direct hits that left the target down by the stern. Enemy fire struck the cockpit during the attack, fatally wounding his observer and wounding Monroe himself in the ankle, yet he held the damaged aircraft on course and returned it safely to base. For this action — combining precise bomb-aiming, refusal to break off under intense fire, and the skill to fly a crippled aircraft home with a dead crewman beside him — he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 22 April 1941. He continued to serve through the middle war years, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader, and died on 29 October 1942 while in the Sudan. He is buried at Khartoum War Cemetery, Plot 6, Row E, Grave 10, and is remembered by his wife Violet Madeline Monroe of Morden, Surrey.