Howard Clive Mayers

Howard Clive Mayers was born on 9 January 1910 in Sydney, Australia, the son of George Russell Mayers, and was educated at Canford School before reading Engineering at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he joined the University Air Squadron in 1929 and held a short-service commission in the Reserve of Air Force Officers. He had established himself in business in London as a company director before the outbreak of war brought him back to the colours as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 77976, in early 1940. Posted to No. 601 (County of London) Squadron at Tangmere in August 1940, he flew Hurricanes through the Battle of Britain, destroying several enemy aircraft in quick succession, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross that October. Deploying to the Western Desert in 1941, he took command of No. 94 Squadron and distinguished himself further: on a day in December of that year he landed his aircraft under fire beside a shot-down comrade, took the man aboard, and lifted off as enemy vehicles closed in — an act of cool gallantry that earned him a Bar to his DFC, gazetted on 13 February 1942. Appointed Wing Leader of 239 Wing in April 1942 and flying the Curtiss Kittyhawk, he led his formation on intensive low-level bombing and strafing missions against enemy supply lines and airfields, for which he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Order. On 20 July 1942, leading his wing over the Qattara Depression, he shot down a Macchi C.202 before his own Kittyhawk was damaged in combat; he made a forced landing in the desert and, though his aircraft was later found, no trace of him was ever recovered — he is believed to have died either in the desert or aboard a transport taking prisoners to Europe. Wing Commander Mayers, aged thirty-two, is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial, Column 247, Egypt.