Ian Gleed

Ian Richard Gleed had his first flight at Hatfield (a joyride with the London Aeroplane Club) while still at school. He later became a member of the London Aeroplane Club (thought to have joined in April 1935). He gained his licence on 12 July 1935 (No.12976) at Hatfield. However, one biographer states he qualified on 31 July 1936 (No. 8003) – after he joined the RAF in March 1936 (possibly this refers to a B-licence).

He was given the nickname 'Widge' – short for 'Wizard Midget', apparently due to his tendency to call things 'Wizard' (like people today describe things as 'Wicked'), and his short stature (he was 5 feet 6 inches / 1.65m). He mentions his RAF nickname in his part-fiction, part-autobiographical book but claimed not to know how

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Tom Neil

Thomas Neil joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) on 17th October 1938 and began his flying training at 17 E&RFTS, Barton, Manchester.

Called up on 2nd September 1939, Neil went to 4 ITW; Bexhill in early November.

On 1st December he was posted to 8 FFS, Montrose and on completion of the course, he was commissioned and joined 249 Squadron on 15th May 1940 at its reformation at Church Fenton.

Flying from North Weald on 7th September, Neil claimed a Bf 109 fighter destroyed, on the 11th a He 111 bomber, on the 15th two Bf 109s and a Do 17 bomber destroyed and another Do 17 shared, on the 18th a He 111 damaged and on the 27th a Bf 110 and a Ju 88 bomber destroyed, a Bf 110 fighter probably destroyed and a Ju 88 shared.

On 6th Octobe
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Richard Hillary

Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary was an Anglo-Australian Royal Air Force fighter pilot during the Second World War. He wrote the book The Last Enemy about his experiences during the Battle of Britain.

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Max Hastings

Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL, FRHistS is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. His parents were Macdonald Hastings, a journalist and war correspondent, and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar.

Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year.After leaving Oxford University, Max Hastings became a foreign correspondent, and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard.

Among his bestselling books Bomber Command won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize.

After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Dai
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Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre is a writer-at-large for The Times (U.K.) and the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends, Double Cross, Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and Rogue Heroes, among other books. Macintyre has also written and presented BBC documentaries of his work.
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Richard Hillary

Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary was an Anglo-Australian Royal Air Force fighter pilot during the Second World War. He wrote the book The Last Enemy about his experiences during the Battle of Britain.

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Charles Whiting

Charles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler.

Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and A
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J.E. Johnson

Air Vice Marshal James Edgar Johnson, CB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, DFC & Bar, nicknamed "Johnnie", was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and flying ace—defined as a pilot that has shot down five or more enemy aircraft in aerial combat—who flew and fought during the Second World War.

Johnson grew up and was educated in the East Midlands, where he qualified as an engineer. He served as an Assistant Engineer at Ilkeston and latterly to the Chigwell Urban District Council at Loughton. A sportsman, Johnson broke his collarbone while playing rugby, an injury that later complicated his ambitions of becoming a fighter pilot. Johnson had been interested in aviation since his youth and applied to join the RAF. He was initially rejected, first on social, and
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Brian Lane

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Geoffrey Wellum

GEOFFREY WELLUM, a veteran of the Battle of Britain, was the youngest fighter pilot (at 18) in the Royal Air Force (RAF) to have fought in that battle.

"Aged seventeen, he signed up on a short-service commission with the Royal Air Force in August 1939. The first aircraft he flew was the Tiger Moth at Desford airfield in Leicestershire, After successfully completing the course, he then went on to fly the North American Harvard advanced trainer at RAF Little Rissington with 6FTS.

"He was then posted directly in May 1940 to 92 Squadron, flying Spitfires. He saw extensive action during the Battle of Britain. His first Commanding Officer was Roger Bushell, (later immortalised in 'The Great Escape'), and his close colleagues included Brian Kingcome
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Jeffrey L. Ethell

Ethell, whose nickname in the air was "Fighter Writer," was the author of fifty-nine books and more than one thousand magazine articles, many dealing with World War II aviation. Born the son of a fighter pilot on March Air Force Base in Riverside, California, Ethell was prevented from joining the Air Force because he lacked 20/20 vision. He went on, however, to log more than 5000 hours of flight time in more than 215 types of military aircraft and became an honorary member of the American Fighter Aces Association, whose pilots have scored five or more combat victories. Ethell was also leader in the international "warbirds" movement, an effort to preserve aging military aircraft.
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Alan Savage

Christopher Robin Nicole was born on 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), where he was raised. He is the son of Jean Dorothy (Logan) and Jack Nicole, a police officer, both Scottish. He studied at Queen's College in Guyana and at Harrison College in Barbados. He was a fellow at the Canadian Bankers Association and a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada in Georgetown and Nassau from 1947 to 1956. In 1957, he moved to Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom, where he currently lives, but he also has a domicile in Spain.

On 31 March 1951, he married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, they divorced. On 8 May 1982 he married for the sec
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Gordon Thorburn

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Adrian Stewart

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Richard Rohmer

Major-General (Ret'd) Richard Heath Rohmer, OC, CMM, DFC, O.Ont, KStJ, CD, OL, QC, JD, LLD (born in 1924). Canada's most decorated citizen, an aviator, a senior lawyer (aviation law), adviser to business leaders and the Government of Ontario and is a prolific writer. Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent some of his early youth in Pasadena, California as well as in western Ontario at Windsor and Fort Erie.

The Peterborough Examiner's lead editorial of 14 January 2009 says this: "Rohmer, one of Canada's most colourful figures of the past half-century, was a World War II fighter pilot, later a major-general in the armed forces reserve, a high-profile lawyer and a successful novelist and biographer."
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Jeremy Howard-Williams

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Michael J. Daniels

Librarian Note: This profile contains more than one author. Those listed below have multiple books listed on GoodReads.

Michael J. Daniels (2 spaces): GRs author of Becoming Mr. Right
Michael J. Daniels (3 spaces):Books with a focus on Korea
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William Henry Lowe Watson

He was born at 98 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1 and was the second son of the Rev Patrick and Mrs Watson. His father was vicar at Earlsfield in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

He grew to be ix foot five inches tall and was recruited more or less off the street when war was declared in 1914 and was posted to France.

He was in the Signals Company attached to the 5th Division (one of the two Divisions which made up two Corps.

He rose to be a temporary major in the tank corps, was mentioned in despatches and won the DCM and DSO. His DCM was awarded for 'conspicuous gallantry and resource on numerous occasions in carrying messages under shell and line fire, especially on the Aisne and at Givenchy'.

In 1916 he married Ruth Barbara Wake,
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Eddie V. Rickenbacker

Edward Vernon Rickenbacker was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal of Honor recipient. With 26 aerial victories, he was America's most successful fighter ace in the war. He was also a race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters, and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime head of Eastern Air Lines.

See also: Eddie Rickenbacker and Edward Rickenbacker
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Andrew Wilson

There is more than one author with this name
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R.M. 'Mike' Crosley

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Adam Cotton

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John Nichol

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Flight Lieutenant Adrian John Nichol (born December 1963) is a retired Royal Air Force navigator who was shot down and captured during the first Gulf War.
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Stephen Ronson

Stephen Ronson grew up in Sussex, and spent a large part of his childhood exploring the woods and fields around Uckfield, many of which were still dotted with reminders of WW2 - pill boxes, tank traps, nissen huts, and graffiti left by soldiers awaiting D-Day.

He is a passionate student of local history, and when he learnt about Auxiliary Units - groups of men who were instructed to lay low during the predicted nazi invasion and lead the fight back, he knew he had to write about a Sussex farmer, one with a love of the land, and a natural desire and ability to get the job done.

Many of the locations and characters in the John Cook series are inspired by real places and real people. In particular, Stephen was inspired by his grandparents, Eri
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William Henry Lowe Watson

He was born at 98 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1 and was the second son of the Rev Patrick and Mrs Watson. His father was vicar at Earlsfield in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

He grew to be ix foot five inches tall and was recruited more or less off the street when war was declared in 1914 and was posted to France.

He was in the Signals Company attached to the 5th Division (one of the two Divisions which made up two Corps.

He rose to be a temporary major in the tank corps, was mentioned in despatches and won the DCM and DSO. His DCM was awarded for 'conspicuous gallantry and resource on numerous occasions in carrying messages under shell and line fire, especially on the Aisne and at Givenchy'.

In 1916 he married Ruth Barbara Wake,
Buy books on Amazon
Michael J. Daniels

Librarian Note: This profile contains more than one author. Those listed below have multiple books listed on GoodReads.

Michael J. Daniels (2 spaces): GRs author of Becoming Mr. Right
Michael J. Daniels (3 spaces):Books with a focus on Korea
Buy books on Amazon