The Airmen's Stories - F/Lt. G O Budd

George Oliver Budd was born in Reigate on 14th February 1911 and educated at Radley. He joined 604 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force at Hendon on a five year commission on 15th June 1935.

He married Margaret Patricia Cross in July 1939 in Paddington.

He was called to full-time service on 24th August 1939 and remained with the squadron.

On 22nd May 1940 Budd damaged a He111 over Dunkirk and on 16th June he damaged two more.

On the night of 10th/11th April 1941 he destroyed a He111 and damaged another, on 2nd/3rd May he destroyed a Ju88, on 11th/12th June he damaged a He111 and on the 13th/14th he destroyed another.

He was awarded the DFC (gazetted 4th July 1941), the citation crediting him with three enemy aircraft destroyed at night and four more damaged.

Above (L to R): F/Lt. J Cunningham, F/Lt. PWD Heal, unknown, Budd.

Above images courtesy of the collection of F/Lt. RH Scott, 604 Squadron.

On 11th July 1941 Budd was posted to 54 OTU Church Fenton as OC 'D' Squadron. He was posted away on 26th January 1942 to command 1455 Turbinlite Flight at Tangmere, which he did until August 1942.

Thereafter, until the end of the war, he had a series of staff jobs, including Senior Air Liaison Officer with Anti-Aircraft Command from September 1943 until 1944. He then commanded 141 Wing at HQ 46 Group before being released from the RAF on 8th September 1945 as a Wing Commander.

Budd died in August 1991.

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At some time in 1942 Budd was based at Fighter Command HQ at Stanmore. There he came across S/Ldr. Derek Jackson, a distinguished physicist and Professor of Spectroscopy at Oxford University who also rode in three Grand Nationals. In order to use his expertise in developing AI he had enlisted, age 35, in the RAF and was posted as a Pilot Officer Navigator to 604 Squadron in early 1941. He subsequently flew sixty operational sorties, nearly all at night, resulting in five confirmed destroyed, two probably destroyed and two damaged bombers, leaving the RAF as Wing Commander OBE DFC AFC.

Jackson had married Pamela Mitford, one of the famous sisters, in 1936. Budd married Margaret Cross in 1939, being rostered to fly that day their honeymoon was tea at the Ritz, and the two women met at Stanmore and became friends.

Postwar the Jacksons settled at Tullamaine Castle in County Tipperary, Ireland in 1947. The Budds often visited but even after the Jacksons divorced in 1951 Pamela always wore the 604 Squadron badge commissioned from Cartier by Derek (below).

Above: L to R: Jessica, Deborah and Pamela Mitford.