Flying Officer PG Dexter

Links of Long Standing

The SAAF Development Programme’s prewar demise influenced many young South Africans including WI Deas, PG Dexter, GJ Drake, J Falkson, AC Hamman, PH Hugo, O Hume, J Ing, AG Lewis, N Lewis, LA Lynn, Spencer Peacock -Edwards, SR Whiting and GM Wright while 26-year-old Michaelhouse educated Guy Paul Wentworth Austin arrived in England on the day war was declared, commissioned as an “acting Pilot on probation” in January 1940 and lost his life 10 months later in a No 9 Squadron Wellington shot down over Germany.

The First Ten Months

Pilot Officer Peter Grenfell Dexter, a No 16 Squadron Lysander pilot was the third South African serving in France to be awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross” announced on July 23rd in “The London Gazette” after he and his gunner accounted for two Me 109 fighters and, flew their badly damaged Lysander back to base on May 21st.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Unveiled by the Queen Mother in 1993, the Capel Le Ferne “Battle of Britain Memorial” in Kent featuring a large statue of a seated airmen surrounded by squadron badges, preceded the London Embankment monument unveiled by HRH Prince Charles in 2005. Both are dedicated to the “Few” who’s 2 937 names are on the Foxley-Norris Memorial Wall and the monument panels 3. In the latter case, the twenty-five names listed under South Africa, exclude JT Crossey, PG Dexter, CCO Joubert, JW Sleigh and PVH Wells but are identified elsewhere on the panels. Most are British, the number of Poles and Czech’s marginally less than the Commonwealth countries in aggregate with New Zealand topping that list ahead of Canada, South Africa, and Australia.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Two of these RAF Hornchurch based No 611 Squadron Spitfire pilots lost their lives shortly after this July 1941 photograph. Flight Lt ES Lock DSO DFC and Bar (left) shot down the second highest number of enemy aircraft during the “Battle of Britain” killed on August 3rd had accounted for 26 enemy aircraft, Pilot Officer PG Dexter DFC (third left) lost his life two weeks earlier. Pilot Officer WGG Duncan-Smith later commanded No 64 Squadron, Sgt WM Gilmour (right), was later commissioned and commanded No 19 Squadron.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Durban born Pilot Officer PG Dexter DFC commissioned in 1939 and flew No 16 Squadron Lysanders in France before volunteering for Fighter Command. He served with No’s No 54 and 603 Squadron’s during the “Battle of Britain”, claimed at least two enemy aircraft and carried out a risky beach landing on September 27th attempting to assist rescuing Pilot Officer Cardell a fellow No 603 Squadron pilot who parachuted close inshore, but was found dead.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Shot down on October 2nd incurring injuries that kept him off flying until April 1941, Peter Grenfell Dexter lost his life colliding with another Spitfire during a sortie in July 33 and is remembered at King Edwards in Johannesburg and Pretoria Boys High.

The Dreaded Telegram

Pilot Officer A Greenberg, one of the 22, was killed during flying training on March 3rd, 1940, when engine failure caused his No 224 Squadron Hudson to crash. The first of 49 South Africans serving in the RAF who lost their lives during 1940, Albert Aaron Greenberg, a contemporary of Norman Lewis’s at King Edwards was confirmed as a Pilot Officer in the December 28th “London Gazette” in a list including Peter Grenfell Dexter, Pieter Hendrik Hugo and Basil Gerald Stapleton.