Obituary: Air Commodore Peter Merriman CBE, fighter pilot

Peter Merriman: Fearless Spitfire pilot who flew with Douglas Bader in Fighter Command

Sir Commodore Peter Merriman was a Spitfire pilot and one of The Few who flew with Douglas Bader in Fighter Command. Their heroic efforts did much to win the Battle of Britain, a turning point in the Second World War. Merriman joined Bader’s Wing in May 1941 as the squadron received orders to reconnoitre the territory in the Pas de Calais and to disturb the expected German invasion and bomb assembly yards. Such missions involved many hazardous aerial dog fights with the Luftwaffe.

Bader had been brought down near St Omer in the Pas de Calais in August and was made a prisoner of war – as is graphically portrayed in the film Reach For The Sky starring Kenneth More. Bader had had to bail out of his Spitfire without his artificial legs and the Luftwaffe agreed to give free passage to an aircraft to drop a replacement. The RAF refused the offer and a Blenheim bomber dropped spare legs during a raid later that month. Merriman escorted Bader’s Spitfire Wing and proudly flew in the formation.

Merriman was a much respected officer in the RAF and was awarded an immediate DFM for his “courage and keenness to engage the enemy at all times”.

After a period as an apprentice electrical engineer Edward William Merriman (always known as Peter) joined the RAF to train as a pilot in June 1940. After qualifying he joined No 610 Squadron, whose pilots were initially part timers who would spend their spare time flying and practising combat manoeuvres. Operating out of Biggin Hill it became one of the most famous squadrons in the RAF. Such aces as Johnnie Johnson, Constantine Pegge, Billy Burton and Bader were among the formidable group of pilots.

Merriman’s skills as a pilot were tested when his Spitfire malfunctioned over northern France and he decided to return to base.

A Messerschmitt pursued him and, displaying a cool head and much courage, Merriman shot it out of the sky. During the Battles of Britain Merriman accounted for three more German planes and probably destroyed two others.

From 1943 he was made a flying instructor and awarded a commendation when a plane in which he was instructing caught fire after taken off. In the post-war years Merriman was a flying instructor at the Central Flying School and later taught aerodynamics and test flying at the RAF Flying College.

From 1952 Merriman was transferred to the air transport operations where he commanded No 47 Squadron, equipped with the Hastings aircraft. He served in Libya for three years and returned to command the Flying Wing. He was then seconded to the US Armed Forces Staff College and worked on the transport operations staff in USAF’s Tactical Air Command. In 1963 he returned to the UK to be chief instructor of the air transport department at the Joint Warfare Establishment.

Merriman was subsequently sent to Zambia to survey airfields and set up systems for air transport as the political situation in Ian Smith’s Rhodesia worsened. His primary objective was to discover suitable airfields that could cope with major airlifts if Rhodesia declared unilateral independence, a move that would cause political and commercial deadlock in landlocked Zambia.

Merriman set out detailed plans to cover all eventualities and when Smith declared UDI in 1965 the UK government imposed sanctions and initiated transport plans in line with Merriman’s suggestions. When the oil embargo was activated later that year the RAF began a vital airlift which greatly helped the Zambian economy.

In 1967 he was seconded to command the RAF airfield at Changi, Singapore, one of the RAF’s largest bases in the Far East.

In 1969 he was appointed commandant of the Joint Air Transport Establishment and his final appointment in the RAF was at HQ Training Command. In 1974 he retired to Lincoln where he worked for MA Ashley and Sons, a wholesale outlet for China and glass, and served as managing director of Eastern Air Executive where his flying experience was of considerable assistance in furthering the company’s commercial expansion.

Peter Merriman married Winifred Bonser in 1941. She died in 1999 and he is survived by their two sons. The eldest followed him into the RAF.