George Barclay

Richard George Arthur Barclay, (7 December 1919 – 17 July 1942) was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War. He was killed in action during the First Battle of El Alamein. Early life Barclay was born in South London on 7 December 1919; his father Gilbert was an Anglican rector, and his mother Dorothy the daughter of missionary CT Studd and his family home for most of his childhood was in the rectory at Great Holland, on the Essex coast. He attended Hawtreys preparatory school, Stowe School, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined the University Air Squadron in 1938. Second World War Called up on the outbreak of war, and posted to No. 249 Squadron RAF in July 1940, he flew through the Battle of Britain, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in October. During the Battle of Britain, his diary records that he could see his house while flying from RAF North Weald. Barclay's DFC citation from November 1940 reads: