Squadron Leader CF (Jimmy) Rawnsley

1904 – 1965 - “ONE OF THE FEW”

This is a brief history of “one of the few”, who lived in this village later in his life.

Squadron Leader C F (Jimmy) Rawnsley was awarded the D.S.O., D.F.C., D.F.M. and bar, which made him the Royal Air Force’s most decorated navigator by the end of World War II.

It is not generally realised that navigators earned the sobriquet of “One of the Few”, which is usually regarded as referring to “dashing, young handsome pilots”, but they served in Bristol Blenheims as “observers”, using the very early versions of airborne interception or, as it became known, radar.

Jimmy was by profession an electrical engineer; he joined the Auxiliary Air Force in 1936, at the relatively old age of thirty-two. In 1937 (as a very junior aircraftsman) he crewed-up as an air-gunner to the then-youngest Pilot Officer in 604“County of Middlesex Squadron”, John Cunningham, flying thefighter biplane the Hawker Demon. Their flying partnership was to last throughout the coming war.

When 604 Squadron was converted to a night-fighting role, the air-gunner/observers became navigators and radar operators, using the highly secret new “black box” radar. The early use of this revolutionary equipment was extremely frustrating because of the unreliability of its component parts, which were all at the cutting edge of radio technology. Nevertheless, the determination to succeed of both John Cunningham and Jimmy Rawnsley resulted in them achieving eighteen victories against the German night and day raiders during the six years of the War. Theirs was the highest-scoring partnership in that conflict.

When Cunningham became the Commanding Officer of 604 Squadron, the newly-commissioned Jimmy Rawnsley became Navigator Leader of the Squadron, eventually resulting in a D.S.O. to add to his D.F.M. and bar (that had been awarded when he was a Sergeant) and, later, his D.F.C.

Just as Cunningham became the outstanding night fighter pilot of the war, so Rawnsley became one of the pioneers of radar-guided interceptions in night fighters. On their second tour of operational flying, in Mosquitoes in the famous 85 Squadron, Rawnsely again crewed-up with Cunningham and finished the War with him.

Rawnsley was a sensitive and self-critical man who succeeded through determination, commitment and loyalty to his outstanding colleague and pilot. After the war, he lived at Pump Cottage in Slindon, and is remembered by a plaque in the churchyard close to the “Angel”.

After such brave and honoured war experiences, it is barely believable that he should have chosen, almost as his epitaph, a verse from Kipling’s “The Changelings”, with which to conclude his very modest biography, but such is the modesty of really great men who do not believe that they live up to their own very high standards.

“Now there is nothing, not even our rank

To witness what we have been;

And I am returned to my Walworth Bank,

And you to your margarine.”Lph/6.4.11