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Michael Fulford-Dobson, Cold War-era naval officer whose later life was a model of public service
He completed training as a midshipman in the aircraft carrier Unicorn during the Korean War and was a flag lieutenant during the Suez crisis
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David Mason, Guards officer who braved withering fire to save lives of comrades in Oman
Tall and striking, with an unsettling gaze, he criticised governments for failing in their responsibilities towards veterans and war widows
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John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, last pilot of ‘the Few’ who fought in the Battle of Britain
He flew Hurricanes and Spitfires and was shot down four times, twice in a period of a few days during the battle against the Luftwaffe
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Pat Buxton, resourceful secretary at wartime SOE whose catchphrase was ‘we’ll muddle through’
At St Albans School, clouds of cigarette smoke greeted pupils seeking her signature on ‘white slips’ for minor misdemeanours
![Patricia Buxton: 'passed tests to high standard, [is] capable [and] would hold her own even though still young'](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2025/03/10/TELEMMGLPICT000415394645_17416292704880_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq3J-xHLRnwv4NBCBH92XJW6E8RTWAOuAV4MIkI3sUTX8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
![Patricia Buxton: 'passed tests to high standard, [is] capable [and] would hold her own even though still young'](/content/dam/obituaries/2025/03/10/TELEMMGLPICT000415394645_17416292704880_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq3J-xHLRnwv4NBCBH92XJW6E8RTWAOuAV4MIkI3sUTX8.jpeg?imwidth=480)
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Lieutenant General Sir Peter Graham, Gordon Highlander who commanded the Ulster Defence Regiment
Besides Northern Ireland, he served in Kenya, Borneo and West Germany, and as a proud Scot he later campaigned to preserve the Union
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Captain Richard Farnfield, submariner who played underwater blind man’s bluff with the Soviets
Undetected, his hunter-killer nuclear submarine Sovereign passed some 800 yards from a Delta-class sub, which was performing a ‘Crazy Ivan’
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Valérie André, first woman to fly a helicopter into combat zones, nicknamed ‘Madame Ventilateur’
She also made 121 parachute jumps to treat wounded men on the ground, who were astonished by ‘a girl, of all things, falling out of the sky’
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Pam Jordan, last of the ATA’s female motorcycle despatch riders in the Second World War
In winter she would stuff a magazine down her front as insulation. Blackout navigation was tricky but she found local taxi driver helpful
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Gwen Watkins, codebreaker who met her husband, Welsh poet Vernon Watkins, at Bletchley Park
‘I was taken to see this codebook that had been captured... The blood on it hadn’t clotted yet. That brought the war very close’
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Sqn Ldr Stanley Booker, Bomber Command navigator who survived torture and Buchenwald
He later flew 227 sorties in the Berlin Airlift then joined British intelligence in Berlin, working next door to double agent George Blake
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Air Marshal Sir John Walker, defence intelligence chief who controversially proposed sweeping RAF cuts
He teamed up with former Thatcher adviser David Hart to deliver a bombshell review of RAF spending, estimated to save up to £3 billion
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Lt Col Anthony Le Tissier, last British governor of Spandau Prison in Berlin
He improved Rudolf Hess’s conditions by giving him a prefabricated summer house, but the Nazi later strangled himself there
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Dennis Newland, signaller in Burma who kept his ‘wireless village’ in touch with the Allies
Having left school aged 16, he retrained after the war as a physicist and researched anaesthetic machines for the British Oxygen Company
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Iris Cummings Critchell, swimmer who competed in Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics
Young Iris ‘couldn’t miss the superior attitude’ of the German soldiers: ‘It was obvious even to a teenager that they were up to something’
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Tony Hallett, inspirational naval officer who went on to lead rugby union into the professional era
He secured a generous broadcasting deal for the domestic game and championed the idea of European club competitions
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Roy Hayward, D-Day veteran who paid a high price for his service in Normandy
After his tank was shelled he lay there for some time until two stretcher bearers came up and asked him if he was still alive
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Wing Commander Jack Harris, Lancaster pilot awarded the DFC who flew in the infamous Dresden raid
Throughout his time in 550 Squadron, his crew never returned early and always hit the primary target
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Michael Loewe, China scholar who at Bletchley Park helped to crack Japanese naval codes
In the 1950s he turned to Chinese codes and ciphers at GCHQ and later became a leading expert on the Han Dynasty
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Raymond Whitwell, soldier who escaped from France in 1940 after commandeering a train at gunpoint
He flew into Arnhem in a glider carrying a jeep and a trailer packed with ammunition and hand grenades
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Boyd Salmon, naval diver who did vital work helping the Dutch to clear mines in 1945
When one shell or mine ‘around five feet long’ exploded, Boyd got some shrapnel in his gut which would set off alarms at airport security
