Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (Air Vce Mshl or AVM) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries which have historical British infl ...

David Francis William Atcherley, (12 January 1904 – 8 June 1952) was a senior

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

officer.

Early life

David Atcherley and his twin

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

were born on 12 January 1904, and were the sons of Major General Sir Llewellyn Atcherley, Chief Constable of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

,Biography of Sir Richard Atcherley
/ref> and his wife "Nellie", Eleanor Frances (1871–1957), daughter of Richard Mickelthwait, of Ardsley House, in the valley of Deane near

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

. Atcherley and his brother were first cousins of

William Empson Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his firs ...

. They both attended

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire ...

in Northamptonshire.

Military career and service in the Second World War

Atcherley entered

Sandhurst Military Academy The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer An officer is a person who has a position ...

in 1922. In 1924 he was commissioned into the

East Lancashire Regiment The East Lancashire Regiment was, from 1881 to 1958, a Line infantry, line infantry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot and 59t ...

. He then became an aircraft pilot and transferred to the Royal Air Force (RAF). At the start of the war he was Commanding Officer of No. 85 Squadron. He commanded No. 253 Squadron in May 1940. Atcherley became the Commanding Officer at

RAF Fairwood Common Royal Air Force Fairwood Common, or more simply RAF Fairwood Common, is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, sector station located on Fairwood Common, on the Gower Peninsula, to the west of Swansea. It is now the ...

in 1942 and was responsible for collecting Oberleutnant

Armin Faber ''Oberleutnant'' Armin Faber was a German ''Luftwaffe'' pilot in World War II who mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and landed his Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (Fw 190) intact at RAF Pembrey in South Wales. His plane was the first Fw 190 t ...

from

RAF Pembrey Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range is a Ministry of Defence air weapons range located near the village of Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, northwest of Burry Port and south of Carmarthen, Wales. Adjacent to the weapons range site is a former Royal Air ...

when he landed his

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' (Shrike) is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, the ...

there on 23 June 1942. Towards the end of the war he served as senior air staff officer in No. 2 Group.

Disappearance and presumed death

In June 1952, Atcherley was lost at sea, presumed dead whilst piloting a Meteor jet fighter PR Mk.10 ( from No. 13 Squadron). He took off from RAF Kabrit in Egypt at approximately 11.30 am for a 40-minute flight to

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

in Cyprus. His aircraft never arrived at Nicosia, and no radio message was received. No trace of Atcherley or his aircraft was ever found despite an extensive air-sea search being carried out by British, Israeli, Turkish and American aircraft.

Honours and awards

*29 July 1941 – Distinguished Flying Cross – Wing Commander David Francis William Atcherley, Royal Air Force. *14 July 1944 – Distinguished Service Order – Acting Air Commodore David Francis William Atcherley, Royal Air Force.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atcherley, David 1904 births 1950s missing person cases 1952 deaths Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of the Bath Military personnel from York People educated at Oundle School Missing aviators Officers of the Order of Leopold II People lost at sea Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium) Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1952 Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst East Lancashire Regiment officers 20th-century British Army personnel

Early life

Military career and service in the Second World War

Disappearance and presumed death

Honours and awards

See also

References