Squadron Leader Keith Lawrence
Battle of Britain pilot who later took on German bomber formations during the Battle of Malta
SQUADRON LEADER KEITH LAWRENCE, who has died aged 96, was the last surviving New Zealandborn Battle of Britain fighter pilot; he later flew in the fierce air battles of the Battle of Malta. Lawrence was flying a Spitfire of No 234 Squadron when he damaged a German bomber on July 8 1940, the squadron’s first success. He went on to damage three more enemy aircraft including a Messerschmitt Bf 110, which ditched in the English Channel. On September 7 the Luftwaffe made its first heavy daylight raid on London. Lawrence was scrambled and, after attacking a bomber, he chased a Messerschmitt Bf 109 to the coast and shot it down south of Folkestone.
When his squadron moved to Cornwall for a rest, he transferred to No 603 Squadron and during the fierce fighting on September 15, Battle of Britain Day, he shot down another Bf 109 and saw his gunfire hit two others.
In October Lawrence joined a new unit at Gravesend in Kent. On November 23 he damaged a Bf 110 fighter during a weather reconnaissance flight but four days later was attacked by a Bf 109. One wing of his Spitfire was blown off and Lawrence found himself falling with a useless right arm. He managed to deploy his parachute and landed in the sea. He was picked up by a minesweeper and taken to Ramsgate, where he was admitted to hospital with a broken leg and dislocated arm.
The eldest son of a New Zealand Regiment sergeant severely wounded at Passchendaele, Keith Ashley Lawrence was born at Waitara, New Zealand, on November 25 1919 and attended Southland Boys’ High School at Invercargill. He joined the Civil Reserve of Pilots in February 1938 before being accepted by the RAF. He left for the UK in January 1939 and was commissioned in November 1939, when he joined No 234 in Yorkshire.
After almost a year recovering from his injuries, Lawrence returned to his old unit, but in February 1942 he left for Malta where he joined No 185 Squadron as a flight commander to fly Hurricanes.
Over the next four months Lawrence flew intensively, leading many patrols during the period when Malta was coming under very heavy attack. Operating from Hal Far airfield he engaged large enemy bomber formations, gaining his first success on March 23 when he shared in the destruction of a Junkers Ju 88 bomber. The German crew took to their dinghy after crashing into the sea.
Scrambled on a daily basis to meet the German bomber formations, often involving more than 40 aircraft, Lawrence and his pilots also flew patrols to protect the vital re-supply convoys, which came under constant fire as they approached the island. Lawrence damaged a number of enemy aircraft and on May 9 he shot down a Junkers 87 Stuka dive-bomber over Valetta. The following day he accounted for another Stuka as it divebombed shipping in Grand Harbour.
After re-equipping with Spitfires, Lawrence took command of No 185 Squadron, at which point he decided to dispense with his trademark moustache. He continued to lead formations during the fierce fighting until he was rested, returning to Britain in August.
For his service in Malta, Lawrence was awarded the DFC. The citation recorded his “great courage and outstanding keenness especially when the odds were great”.
He became an instructor, training fighter pilots before serving as a liaison officer with the USAAF fighter units based in East Anglia. In October 1943 he was posted to the Central Gunnery School to train as a gunnery instructor, before returning to fighter training units to pass on his expertise.
Lawrence was keen “to do his bit” and he volunteered for a third tour of operations. He joined No 124 Squadron in early February 1945, flying Spitfires on dive-bombing attacks against V-2 rocket launching sites in Holland and on interdiction and bomber escort missions. By the end of the war he had flown a further 50 sorties.
In August the squadron converted to the Gloster Meteor and Lawrence flew 56 sorties in the RAF’s first jet fighter before leaving for New Zealand in March 1946. He served with the RNZAF as an air traffic controller and returned to the UK in 1954 to run various commercial enterprises.
He retired at 65 and settled in Devon, where he flew with the Devon and Somerset Gliding Club for 18 years. In 2002, as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, the Battle of Britain Fighter Association nominated him for a flight in a Spitfire, which he was delighted to accept 57 years after his first flight in the fighter.
In 2010, the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Lawrence was invited to represent “the Few” in a short sequence for the BBC filmed at the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-leFerne on the Kent coast.
Lawrence was a lifelong Christian Scientist, and was both clerk and treasurer of the Exeter church for many years after his retirement.
Keith Lawrence married Kay Harte in July 1945; she survives him with their two sons and three daughters.
Squadron Leader Keith Lawrence, born November 25 1919, died June 2 2016