The Airmen's Stories - F/Lt. E W Campbell-Colquhoun

Ernest William Campbell-Colquhoun was born on 29th October 1916 and joined the RAF on a short service commission in October 1936. He was posted to 10 FTS Tern Hill on 16th January 1937 and joined 66 Squadron at Duxford on 7th August.

Over Dunkirk on 2nd June 1940 he damaged a Me109.

He married Barbara Fuller in July 1940 in Norwich.

On 21st August he was posted to 264 Squadron at Kirton-in-Lindsey as a Flight Commander. He was posted away from the squadron on 14th November 1940.

He went to 145 Squadron on 24th October 1941, to 4 Delivery Flight on 6th April 1942 and was later with 165 Squadron. His subsequent service is currently undocumented until 1946 when he was released from the RAF as a Squadron Leader.

November 2018 - Robert Ross worked alongside Campbell at ICI in 1963 and recalls that he mentioned commanding RAF Orkney (this could be one of four airfields). His next posting was to the Far East but a week before he was due to depart he fell and broke a leg. On recovering he was put in charge of a mobile column of RAF personnel which followed the Allied advance into Germany to recover equipment of interest. He was the first to recover an intact Luffwaffe jet fighter, type unknown, but had to trawl through Luftwaffe PoWs to find a pilot who knew how to fly it. 

Campbell-Colquhoun died on 16th February 1989.