Spitfires.com helps identify a World War 2 Spitfire Pilot who should be recognised as ‘One of the Few’

Ronald Thompson

There are many occasions throughout the year when our operations team get to learn about our customer's family connections with World War 2, Aviation,  The RAF and the Supermarine Spitfire. It's great to be able to learn about their family stories and sometimes to be able to use our knowledge and expertise to help them connect and understand the context of their family involvement. This year we were able to help a family achieve recognition for their Father in terms of his role within the RAF during the Battle of Britain.  

Ronald Thompson was the father of Michael, Ronald's oldest son,  who was flying with us at Spitfires.com in one of our 2 seat Spitfires in August of this year (he was accompanied by one of his brothers Peter and other family members). He had brought along the logbook of his father to share with us.

His father Ronald was born in Barrow in Furness on 29th February 1920. He had older siblings; a brother and two sisters. Although his siblings were quite academic and, indeed, his sister Margie was one of the first women to go to Oxford University, Ronald was less so.

He left school and joined Shell as an office boy but as war loomed, he joined the RAF like many young lads who were enthralled by the idea of flying, brought up on tales of fighter pilots from WW1, and pioneering aviators in the 20s and 30s. He trained as a Spitfire pilot and was posted to the 616 squadron in October of 1940. They had thought that he was a Battle of Britain pilot but they were not aware that he had not been formally recognised as such. 

Ronald's Logbook

Mark Hillier, our Head of Operations had the privilege of looking through their father's logbook, and he realised that he had looked at other pilots from the same squadron who had also not officially been recognised as a Battle of Britain pilots. This was mainly due to the fact that the qualification period set by the air ministry meant that to qualify for the official recognition to be bestowed in the form of a Bronze Bar to the 1939-45 medal, the individual had to complete one operational sortie on a fighter squadron within the qualification period from the 10 July 1940 to 31st October 1940. 

Ronald's Story

Ronald's logbook showed he had done one Scramble at the end of October and therefore met the criteria. Technically, he was a Battle of Britain pilot, and not only that, but he was a Distinguished Fighter pilot with quite a lot of combat in Spitfires!

Ronald's Logbook

Looking further at his career, we found out that Ronald Joined the RAF in 1939 and was sent initially to Initial Training Wing at St Leonards, Hastings. After initial flying training on De Havilland  Tiger Moths, he was posted to 8 Flying Training School at Montrose, continuing his flight instruction on the Miles Magister. 

On gaining his Pilots Wings, he found himself at the tail end of the Battle of Britain, being posted to 616 (South  Yorkshire ) Squadron at Kirton in Lindsey. The Squadron had been in action at RAF Kenley during August and had moved North initially to RAF Coltishall, then to Kirton in Lindsey to rest and re-cuperate for the strains of operating down South.

At this point, they picked up new pilots, and Sergeant Ronald Thomson was part of the new intake in October of 1940. It was during this phase that Ronald carried out a number of training sorties but also his log book confirmed one "scramble  --- X Raid" which qualifies him to be recognised as one of the Few.  

After the Battle of Britain, in 1941 he was posted to 66 Squadron on Spitfires for further operational Flying at  RAF Biggin Hill, Exeter and Perranporth. In 1943 He was posted out to North Africa to join 154 (Motor Industries) Squadron, again on Spitfires.

He flew in North Africa and later Malta, his sons also confirming their fathers' stories of strafing German boats as they tried to get out of Sicily across the straights of Messina. 

He was subsequently commissioned to the rank of Pilot Officer and was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery and completion. He had completed over 450 hours of combat flying since 1940 and was due a rest!  Ronald was posted to South Africa for a stint of flying instruction for new pilots where he could pass on his skills and experience.

He later married Dorothy Hogan and they had 4 children. 

Ronald passed away in 2002 at Age 82. 

Ronald and Dorothy

Commemorating Ronald's Service

The issue Spitfires.com had was how to get him officially recognised as a Battle of Britain pilot. Mark initially sent the details of Ronald and photocopies of his log book entries to the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and then on to the Air Historical Branch who have the ultimate responsibility of deciding if a pilot should be formally recognised as one of the Few. 

After a few weeks of research and deliberation, the good news was passed on to the family that Ronald would be added to the official Register of Battle of Britain Aircrew and that the family would be entitled to add the “Battle of Britain” bar to his medals. He also was to be added to the Christopher Foxley-Norris wall on which the names of the almost 3000 fighter aircrew who flew in the Battle of Britain are recorded at Capel le Ferne.