Doug Radcliffe
RAF wireless operator who gave decades of devoted service to the Bomber Command Assocation
DOUG RADCLIFFE, who has died aged 93, was a wartime wireless operator and the long-serving secretary of the Bomber Command Association. Occupying offices in the RAF Museum at Hendon, Radcliffe worked tirelessly to recognise those who had served in Bomber Command. Through his hard work, ably assisted by his secretary and the Association’s registrar, Vivienne Hanmer, the membership of the Association grew to more than 10,000.
He was instrumental in the erection of a bronze statue of Marshal of the RAF Sir Arthur Harris, Bomber Command’s wartime chief, outside the RAF church St Clement Danes in the Strand. The Queen Mother officially unveiled it in May 1992.
In June 2012 the Queen dedicated the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park in memory of the 55,573 aircrew who had given their lives in the Second World War. The funding campaign was boosted by more than £1 million from readers of The Daily Telegraph, whose support is acknowledged in an inscription in the monument’s Portland stone. At the ceremony, Radcliffe said: “When the memorial is revealed I will think of the pilot and the rear gunner of my first crew who are both buried in Germany. They were among thousands of young men who died. There has been nothing to salute them.”
After years when Bomber Command veterans and their service received no official recognition, the dedication of the memorial was the Association’s finest achievement. When it was vandalised in 2013, Radcliffe stood guard over it until the graffiti could be removed.
He retired from his post in 2016 but not before his loyal service had been recognised by his appointment as MBE.
Arthur Henry Douglas Radcliffe was born on November 21 1923. He was 17 and working at the BBC as a messenger boy when Broadcasting House was bombed in October 1940. He watched as the bodies of seven girls were recovered from the music library and immediately decided to join the RAF.
He trained as a wireless operator/air gunner and was sent to North Africa in 1943. En route, his Wellington bomber crashed and he spent time in hospital recovering from his injuries. He then joined No 425 (RCAF) Squadron based in Tunisia and over the next few months flew 30 operations over North Africa and Italy, including providing cover for the landings on Sicily.
After completing his tour, he returned to the UK to be an instructor on a bomber-training unit before converting to the Lancaster. His squadron was earmarked for Tiger Force, the RAF bomber squadrons destined to fly operations against Japan from islands in the Pacific, but the two atom bombs brought the war to an end and the Force was not deployed.
After the war Radcliffe became a cine-technician and was involved in the making of The Dam Busters (1955), working on the bouncing bomb visual effects. He later established his own company, producing filmstrips and slides for use in education. In 1984 he was invited to form and run the Bomber Command Association.
Radcliffe was a fine left-hand batsman and the Australian all-rounder Keith Miller, who flew Mosquitos in Bomber Command, was a close friend. On his visits to London he always called at the RAF Museum to see Radcliffe, whose brother was a groundsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground for many years.
Doug Radcliffe’s wife Sylvia died in 2004 and their son and daughter survive him.
Doug Radcliffe, born November 21 1923, died August 31 2017