Lt Colonel DP Tilley “Don”
Donald Pax Tilley
- Rank
- Lt Colonel
- Honours
- DSO DFC & Bar
- Squadron
- No 39 Squadron
- School
- St Charles College
- Born
- 1918
- Fate
- Survived the war. Died 1978
- In the book
- Pages 132, 168
Stories that mention him
- Ted Strever and the Italian seaplaneSAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
From the book
SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
Many of the first 32 SAAF pilots seconded for RAF service in Britain who sailed from Cape Town on the “SS Strathnaver and arrived in Glasgow in early December 1941 had been on an early “Empire Air Training Scheme” course and experienced the SAAF’s illogical insistence that they be awarded RAF wings, rank, uniforms before remustering as SAAF pilots prior to secondment. That group included A Bartlemann, BR Bennetts, PH Bosch, GB Callaghan, EG Catton, RJ Clements, NA Freeman, WD Forsmann, C Heydenrich, AE Hounsom, AV Johnson, KC Kuhlman, AD Morum, CV Nissen, FO Noome, WR Roberts, AC Rowe, CC Steyn, ET Strever, CJO Swales and DP Tilley. Bosch, Freeman, Morum Steyn, Noome and Nissen did not survive the war, Heydenrich, Clements and Kuhlman became “POW’s”.
SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
The small Mediterranean island of Malta had been subjected to intensive Italian and German bombing from mid-1940 and by the time ET Strever, FO Noome, DP Tilley KC Kuhlman, CJO Swales and RJ Clements arrived in 1942, the island, close to submission to the German and Italian forces, was desparately short of fuel and food and, completely reliant on the Allied convoys delivering supplies being protected by the “Torpedo Bomber” and Spitfire squadrons aside from attacking ships along the Greek coastline carrying supplies for Rommel’s army.
SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
Four of the five SAAF airmen who earned the DSO DFC & Bar. JPM Faure(left), JPD Human, DP Tilley and RHD Rogers (right) a SAAF Brigadier in 1972. Faure and Rogers flew Desert Air Force fighters, Human served briefly with 233 Wing Tilley, the only one who earned his decorations immediately flew Torpedo bombers.
SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
Donald Pax Tilley, born in 1918 and educated at St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg volunteered for the SAAF in 1940, trained on “Torpedo Bombers” and was posted to Malta in July 1942. Lt Colonel D P Tilley DSO DFC and Bar flew SAAF Coastal Patrol Ventura’s after 16 months of RAF secondment and No 227 Squadron Beaufighters before assuming command of No 19 Squadron in 1945. He died in 1978.