Bill Skelton
| Frank Seymour Skelton | |
|---|---|
Bill Skelton (left) with his pilot Branse Burbridge
|
|
| Born |
26 August 1920 Pirbright, Surrey |
| Died | 24 May 2003 (aged 82) |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 Royal Air Force
|
| Years of service | 1940–1945 |
| Rank | Squadron Leader |
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Order & Bar Distinguished Flying Cross & Bar |
| Other work | Anglican priest |
Frank Seymour "Bill" Skelton DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar (26 August 1920 – 24 May 2003) became, with Branse Burbridge, a highly successful British night-fighter team during the Second World War and was later ordained an Anglican priest.
Frank Seymour Skelton, always known as Bill, was born in Pirbright, Surrey, and educated at Blundell's School. His father was a garden designer who died when Skelton was 15 and the remainder of his time at Blundell's was financed by relations (including his cousin, the 17th Duke of Somerset, who employed Skelton as a page to carry his coronet at the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937).
Skelton enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1940, and was commissioned the following year to rise to the rank of acting squadron leader.
Known as "the night hawk partners", Skelton (as navigator) and Burbridge (as pilot) were officially credited with destroying 21 enemy aircraft, one more than Group Captain "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham.
Skelton's brilliance with airborne radar over Britain and Germany was recognised with the awards of a DFC and Bar in 1944 and a DSO and Bar in 1945; the citations of both Skelton and Burbridge referred to them setting "an unsurpassed example of outstanding keenness and devotion to duty".
Skelton and Burbridge first flew together in the "baby blitz", which involved a series of German lightning hit-and-run bombing attacks by high performance Focke-Wulf Fw 190Fw’s during spring 1943. The following May, the pair were posted as members of No 85 Squadron to 100 Group whose aircraft, equipped to carry out electronic counter-measures, escorted four-engined bombers over Germany.
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