Guy Gibson

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, (12 August 1918 – 19 September 1944) was a distinguished bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was the first Commanding Officer of No. 617 Squadron, which he led in the "Dam Busters" raid in 1943, resulting in the breaching of two large dams in the Ruhr area of Germany. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, in the aftermath of the raid in May 1943 and became the most highly decorated British serviceman at that time. He completed over 170 war operations before being killed in action at the age of 26. Early life and education Gibson was born in Simla, British India, on 12 August 1918, the son of Alexander James Gibson and his wife Leonora (Nora) Mary Gibson. At the time of Gibson's birth, his father was an officer in the Imperial Indian Forestry Service, becoming the Chief Conservator of Forests for the Simla Hill States in 1922. In 1924, when he was six, his parents separated. His mother was granted custody of Gibson, his elder brother Alexander ("Alick") and sister Joan, and decided to return to England. As her family came from Porthleven, Cornwall, Nora Gibson settled first in Penzance. Gibson started school in England at the same school as his sister, West Cornwall College. His mother then moved to London and he was sent as a boarder to Earl's Avenue School, a preparatory school, later known as St George's, in Folkestone, Kent. In 1932 Gibson started at St Edward's School, Oxford, the same school as Douglas Bader where he was also placed in the same house, Cowell's. Gibson's housemaster was A. F. "Freddie" Yorke who became Gibson's guardian.