Wing Commander Roderick Alastair Brook Learoyd, VC was a Royal Air Force bomber pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
17 Facts About Roderick Learoyd
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Roderick Learoyd lived in Argentina for two years as a farmer.
3.
Roderick Learoyd decided to join the Royal Air Force and was accepted in March 1936.
4.
Roderick Learoyd took a short service commission and was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on 18 May 1936.
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Roderick Learoyd was posted to No 49 Squadron, Bomber Command equipped with Hawker Hinds at RAF Worthy Down, and was regraded and confirmed as a pilot officer on 23 March 1937.
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Roderick Learoyd was promoted to flying officer on 23 December 1938.
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Flight Lieutenant Roderick Learoyd was one of the pilots briefed to bomb.
8.
Roderick Learoyd was detailed as pilot of Hampden P4403, "EA-M", and his crew comprised Pilot Officer John Lewis, Sergeant Walter Ellis and Leading Aircraftman William Rich.
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Flight Lieutenant Roderick Learoyd took his plane into the target at only 150 feet, in the full glare of the searchlights and flak barrage all round him.
10.
The Victoria Cross was awarded at an investiture on 9 September 1940, by which time Roderick Learoyd, taken off operations and promoted to substantive flight lieutenant, was acting temporarily as personal assistant to Air Chief Marshal Sir Sir Robert Brooke-Popham.
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Roderick Learoyd had attacked this objective on a previous occasion and was well aware of the risks entailed.
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Flight Lieutenant Roderick Learoyd nevertheless made his attack at 150 feet, his aircraft being repeatedly hit and large pieces of the main plane torn away.
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Roderick Learoyd was almost blinded by the glare of many searchlights at close range, but pressed home this attack with the greatest resolution and skill.
14.
Roderick Learoyd subsequently brought his wrecked aircraft home and, as the landing flaps were inoperative and the undercarriage indicators out of action, waited for dawn in the vicinity of his aerodrome before landing, which he accomplished without causing injury to his crew or further damage to the aircraft.
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Roderick Learoyd served in No 44 Squadron for the remainder of the war.
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Roderick Learoyd remained in the RAF reserves until 9 February 1958, when he retired with the rank of wing commander.
17.
Roderick Learoyd's VC is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.