Percy Morfill

Taking up employment in the automotive industry, working for Wingards, a manufacturer of vehicle accessories, Morfill eventually retired in 1977. In his later years he lived in Chichester, in West Sussex, where he died in April 2004, aged 89.

Morfill stayed in the RAF in the postwar period, returning to the United Kingdom and taking up a posting at the Air Ministry. He then worked on bomber development with the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Granted an extended commission in July 1947, he went to the CFS and subsequently served as the chief flying instructor at the University Air Squadron at St Andrews University in Scotland. He was promoted to squadron leader in 1953, by this time serving in a posting at the headquarters of No. 63 Group at RAF Hawarden. He left the RAF in early 1958, having spent the previous two years as the commander of the Station Flight at Tangmere.

In 1944, and by this time a flight lieutenant, Morfill was sent to a flying school at Norton in Southern Rhodesia on instructing duties where he remained for the rest of the war.

In June 1941, Morfill was posted to No. 58 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at Grangemouth and from there attended the Central Flying School (CFS) at RAF Little Rissington for an instructor’s course. He then returned to No. 58 OTU. At the end of the year he went back to the CFS as an instructor. Mentioned in despatches again on 1 January 1942, he was commissioned as a pilot officer later in the month. An instructing post at the Flight Instructor’s School at Hullavington followed. He was promoted to flying officer with effect from 1 October 1942.

At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, No. 65 Squadron was operating the Supermarine Spitfire fighter from RAF Northolt. It began active operations on 5 September 1939. Morfill’s war service with the squadron was brief for in early 1940, he was posted to No. 501 Squadron.

After a period of service with the Fleet Air Arm at the RAF base at Gosport, Morfill volunteered for pilot training. As a successful applicant, he proceeded to No. 3 Elementary & Reserve Flying Training School at Hamble in early 1936. He then went on to No. 6 Flying Training School at Netheravon Airfield in March. Gaining his wings, he was posted to No. 65 Squadron as a sergeant at the start of 1937. His new unit operated the Gloster Gauntlet fighter, and Morfill was soon on its aerobatics team, alongside the future flying ace Robert Stanford Tuck.

From Gosport, Morfill joined the RAF in 1933 as a metal rigger. He volunteered for pilot training three years later and on completion of his flight training was posted to No. 65 Squadron. A few months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was posted to No. 501 Squadron. He flew in the Battle of France and in the subsequent Battle of Britain, during which he destroyed a number of aircraft. Commissioned in 1942, he spent most of the remainder of the war as an instructor in the United Kingdom and Southern Rhodesia. Remaining in the RAF in the postwar period, he continued to serve in instructing posts as well as staff roles. He left the RAF in 1958 and worked in the automotive industry until 1977, when he retired. In April 2004, he died at the age of 89.

Percy Frederick Morfill DFM (11 December 1914 – April 2004) was a British flying ace of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was credited with least six aerial victories.

Percy Frederick Morfill, the son of a publican, was born in Gosport in Hampshire on 11 December 1914. He went to school in Salisbury, in the county of Wiltshire, at Bishop Wordsworth’s School, following which he sat an examination for entry into the Royal Air Force (RAF) under the Aircraft Apprentice Scheme. He passed with the highest marks for a candidate from Wilshire. He duly enlisted in the RAF on 3 September 1930 as an aircraft apprentice, passing out three years later as a metal rigger.