Harold Arthur Cooper Bird-Wilson
(1919-2000), Air Vice MarshalSitter in 2 portraits
Harold Arthur Cooper Bird-Wilson
by Hay Wrightson Ltd
bromide print, circa 1960s
NPG x180607
Harold Arthur Cooper Bird-Wilson
by Hay Wrightson Ltd
bromide print, circa 1960s
NPG x180608
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Geoff Simpson
25 June 2021, 15:41
Bird-Wilson was born in north Wales in 1919, son of a Bengal tea planter. He was at boarding school in England from the age of four and a half, while his parents remained in India. He went on to Liverpool College. He and his two sisters spent school holidays on the Isle of Wight and here his love of flying was initiated when he witnessed the Schneider Trophy races and had his first flight with Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus.
Bird-Wilson joined the RAF in 1937 on a short service commission. In August 1938 he was posted to No 17 Squadron. Shortly afterwards he crashed in bad weather while flying a BA Swallow. His passenger was killed and Bird-Wilson suffered severe facial injuries, including the loss of his nose. He was a patient at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead where he was operated on four times by Archibald McIndoe. Retrospectively Bird-Wilson became a member of the Guinea Pig Club, formed at the hospital in 1941.
Flying Hawker Hurricanes with 17 Squadron in May and June 1940, Bird-Wilson was credited with one enemy aircraft probably destroyed, three shared and two damaged.
Further successes came during the Battle of Britain (July 10-October 31 1940) and "Birdie" Bird-Wilson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on September 24 1940. He was shot down by the German ace Adolf Galland on that day and baled out, with burns, being rescued from the sea by a Royal Navy Motor Torpedo Boat and admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham.
Bird-Wilson had a spell as an instructor. He flew with No 234 Squadron and, during 1943, he became a Wing leader and was awarded a bar to the DFC.
He led the Harrowbeer (Devon) Spitfire Wing and the Bentwaters (Suffolk) Mustang Wing and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the citation, dated January 9 1945, stating that Bird-Wilson displayed, "the highest qualities of leadership, skill and gallantry."
Appointments post-war included: Personal Staff Officer to Air Officer Commanding, Middle East Air Force, Commandant, Central Flying School, Air Officer Commanding, RAF Hong Kong and Commandant, Southern Maritime Air Region. He was made CBE in 1962, having received the Air Force Cross and bar.
Retirement from the RAF came in 1974. He then worked at senior level in the aerospace industry. Air Vice-Marshal Bird-Wilson died in 2000. His Daily Telegraph obituary quoted him as describing flying one of perhaps 12 Hurricanes into formations of more than 100 enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain and saying, "Your throat dried up as you got nearer. I don't believe any man who said he wasn't afraid.
When the Battle ended Bird-Wilson was said to be shocked that, "there was hardly anybody left of the pilots who started out with me. All one's friends had gone."