Blatchford, Howard Peter 'Cowboy' (Wing Commander)

257 Burma Sqn (Thay Myay Gyee Shwe Hii) Spitfire Vc aircraft EN 971 HP-B shot down into the North Sea by Fw 190 aircraft, 25 km from Haarlem, while escorting bombers to Amsterdam, Holland. W/C HP Blatchford DFC MiD (RAF)(Can), Coltishall Wing Leader, missing believed killed. W/C Blatchford was involved in one of the first RAF fighter actions of the war on Oct. 17, 1939, served as a Spitfire PRU pilot during the Battle of France, and became an ace during the Battle of Britain where he led a squadron in attacking the only Italian daylight bombing raid made, Nov. 11, 1940. W/C. Blatchford was an ace having destroyed five enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain while flying Hurricane aircraft with 17 Sqn. He had been flying Spitfire aircraft with 411 Sqn. when war broke out. In April of 1941 he was assigned to 212 Photo Reconnaissance Unit at Heston, England. His father was the Mayor of Edmonton and for whom the Edmonton Downtown Airport, Blatchford Field was named. A lake in the NWT, 50 miles NE of Yellowknife, which he helped to survey as a university student in the 1930's, is also named in his memory (Brown & Lavigne). WC Blatchford has no known grave but is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.