As always, I’ll happily stand corrected but I seem to recall mentioned in the excellent book “The Thousand Plan” (Ralph Barker, 1965) that there was mention of a 16yo pilot of a Manchester or Stirling…….can anyone confirm, deny, abuse, denigrate or pour Elsan contents on this?

Thomas Dobney

Joined RAF aged 14yrs 3months
awarded wings 15yrs 5months
Flew (I believe) 20 ish operations on AW Whitley bombers before being grounded.

‘Shopped’ by his Father (separated parents) after being photographed meeting the King…the RAF immediately grounded him but told him he could rejoin when old enough.
He later became a Captain on Kings/Queens flight !
He wrote an autobiography but cannot remember the title

Edit…forgot to add link to the Oldest RAF Aircrew casualty (BC),where Thomas D was mentioned
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73425&highlight=youngest+raf+pilot

rgds baz