Distinguished Flying Cross of Flight Lieutenant Peter Charles Fasken Stevenson

Peter Stevenson was a successful pilot during the Battle of Britain, who managed to escape from a number of Luftwaffe attacks. His DFC citation stated that ‘his coolness, courage and spirit are of the highest order’.

At the start of the Second World War, Stevenson served with No. 74 Squadron. In May 1940 he was hit by a Dornier Do 17 and force-landed on the beach at Dunkirk. That July he made a solo attack on 12 Messerschmitt Bf 109s and was shot down into the sea one mile off Dover, drifting eleven miles before he was rescued. Stevenson was killed in 1943 flying a Spitfire over Boulogne.