Osgood Philip Villiers "Pedro" Hanbury, (13 September 1917 – 3 June 1943) was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He had scored 11 victories before he was killed in action in 1943.

Early life

Hanbury was the son of Major Philip Hanbury and Dorothy Maud Margary.'Hanbury, Osgood Villiers' i
"Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) (RAF(VR)) Officers"
at unithistories.com, accessed 11 January 2016 He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and after training received a short service commission in the

(RAF) on 30 June 1940.

Second World War

Hanbury initially served as a

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's ...

pilot, carrying out liaison duties in the British Isles. On 3 September 1940, during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

, Hanbury volunteered to transfer to

Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Britai ...

and was posted to No. 602 Squadron RAF. He soon scored several victories in aerial battles over the English Channel and southern England flying X4382, a late production

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

Mk I. By the end of 1940 he had four confirmed victories. In May 1941 he was transferred to No. 260 Squadron RAF, based in the Middle East and North Africa, and operated

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time an ...

s. On 22 May 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) after leading a defensive operation against an enemy air raid on

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

. On 23 June 1942 Hanbury became commanding officer of the squadron and was promoted to flight officer. On 28 July 1942 he received a

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

to his DFC for his leadership of No. 260 Squadron and his actions against the enemy. On 20 April 1943 he was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

. Hanbury was killed on 3 June 1943 while travelling as a passenger on a

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and prim ...

No. 117 Squadron RAF No. 117 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed to be a bomber unit in World War I and reformed as a transport and communications unit in World War II. History Formation and World War I No. 117 Squadron Royal Flying Corps was formed ...

piloted by

Robert Yaxley Group Captain Robert Gordon Yaxley, (1912 – 3 June 1943) was a Royal Air Force pilot and commander during the Second World War. Early life Yaxley was born in Bath, Somerset, the son of Robert and Agnes Elizabeth Yaxley. After attending the R ...

, which was shot down by a German aircraft over the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

. He had scored a total of 11 confirmed victories at the time of his death.

Personal life

Eleven days before his death, Hanbury had married Patricia Cecil Harman, daughter of Charles Cecil Harman and Muriel Kathleen Marion Huth, on 22 May 1943. She gave birth to their son, Christopher Osgood Philip Hanbury, on 16 February 1944. He is commemorated on the

Air Forces Memorial The Air Forces Memorial, or Runnymede Memorial, in Englefield Green, near Egham, Surrey, England is a memorial dedicated to some 20,456 men and women from air forces of the British Empire who were lost in air and other operations during World War ...

. A biography about his war time experiences, ''Pedro: The life and death of Osgood Villiers Hanbury, DFC and Bar'' by Robin Rhoderick-Jones, was published in 2010.

Citations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanbury, Osgood 1917 births 1943 deaths Aviators killed by being shot down British World War II flying aces Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order People educated at Eton College Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force squadron leaders Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II The Few Royal Air Force pilots of World War II