Certificate of award of Pathfinder Badge to Flg Off Leslie Arnold Cox, 20 February 1945

In February 1945, Flying Officer Leslie Arnold Cox received a letter from AVM Don Bennett, advising him that he had qualified for the Path Finder Force Badge.

The Path Finder Force was an elite group of squadrons in Bomber Command which located and marked targets to improve bombing accuracy. These dangerous low-level missions exposed crews to increased danger from enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire. Leslie was killed less than a month later. On 31 March 1945, Avro Lancaster Mark 3 PB468, in which he was a wireless operator, was lost during a day raid against Hamburg shipbuilding yards.