Squadron Leader JS Simson
Jack Stuart Simson
- Rank
- Pilot Officer
- Later rank
- Squadron Leader
- Honours
- DFC AFC
- Squadron
- No 214 Squadron
- Fate
- Survived the war
From the book
Against Unfavourable Odds
The October 1st “London Gazette” announcement of the “Distinguished Flying Cross” awarded to 24-year-old old Pilot Officer Jack Stuart Simson, the second to a South African Bomber Command pilot was the first “immediate” award.
The Airmen who started at Sea
Those present at the 1922 christening ceremony would not have anticipated that an illustrious group of Second World War airmen would emerge from the training facility’s tough two-year course. A few of those airmen, including CH Filmer, JS Simson, JW Sleigh, EJ Morris, and JD Nettleton are in this 1931 photograph with Nettleton also pictured as a young cadet.
The Airmen who started at Sea
Squadron Leader AG Malan, Cadet No 168, was awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross” two weeks before Ainslie was posted missing while Cadet No 592 Pilot Officer JS Simson, the first “General Botha” bomber pilot to be decorated, earned his “Distinguished Flying Cross” announced in the October 1st, 1940 “London Gazette” during an attack on the “Gneisenau”.
The Airmen who started at Sea
Jack Stuart Simson attended Murchison Preparatory School in Pietermaritzburg and joined the “General Botha” in 1931, part of an illustrious intake who became pilots including CH Filmer and JW Sleigh. Simson did not complete his “General Botha” training, commissioned the day before war was declared and joined No 214 Squadron in June 1940 flying Wellingtons. Squadron Leader Simson DFC AFC was placed on the Reserve of Officers at the end of 1945.