Battle of Britain airman dies
William Terence Montague Clark, (11 April 1919 – 7 May 2020) was one of the last two surviving aircrew of the Battle of Britain.
Known as Terry, he was a British nightfighter navigator/radar operator in the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1938 to 1945 who won the Distinguished Flying Medal – one of the highest awards for valour in the air force.
When Terry died on 7 May 2020 at the age of 101, it meant RAF pilot John Hemingway, now living in a care home in his native Ireland, was the last of the surviving Battle of Britain’s pilots.
The 3,000 airmen fought off the Luftwaffe in the skies above England in the summer of 1940 and were dubbed “The Few” after Winston Churchill’s speech at the end of the battle: “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few”.
Terry had been born and raised in Croydon and left school age 14 to take a job at Croydon Gas.
He joined No. 615 Squadron at Kenley in March 1938 as an aircrafthand, then trained to be an aircraft gunner in Hawker Hectors.
He joined No. 219 Squadron at Catterick on 12 July 1940.
In the summer of 1940, during the Battle of Britain, he trained in Bristol Blenheim heavy fighters and was promoted to sergeant. He then trained as a radio observer in the new Bristol Beaufighters
On the night of 16/17 April 1941 Clark flew from RAF Tangmere in West Sussex with the commanding officer of No. 219 Squadron RAF, Wing Commander T.G. Pike, when his own navigator was taken ill. They intercepted and destroyed a Junkers 88 and a Heinkel He111 in the Guildford area. Pike went on to become chief of the air staff in the 1960s.
During the night of 27/28 April, flying with Flying Officer D.O. Hobbis, his regular pilot, Terry assisted in the destruction of an unidentified enemy aircraft, on 1/2 June and 13/14 June they shot down He111’s.
Clark was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, which was gazetted on 8 July 1941. Hobbs won the Distinguised Flying Cross. The duo flew together until Hobbs was killed in action in 1943.
Commissioned as a Pilot Officer in May 1942, Clark had reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant by the end of the war
Post war Clark went back to Croydon Gas and joined the reconstituted Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1949 serving in the Fighter and Aircraft Control Branches before resigning his commission in 1954.
His wife Margaret – the couple had two sons – died in 2002.
Clark said: “Every sailor, soldier, airmen did their bit. They should all be thanked.”