04-08-2025
Meet the family where NINE sons have been RAF pilots... including WWI pioneer, hero member of The Few and now Chinook officer in the Middle East
The remarkable devotion to duty of a family who have had nine members serve as RAF pilots in various wars can be revealed.
The Inglis-Williams' are believed to be the family who have contributed the most airmen to the RAF in its 107 year history.
The extraordinary lineage includes a member of The Few, a senior intelligence officer who was on Adolf Hitler's hit list and the man who came up with the 'Little Ships' plan for Dunkirk.
Other family members distinguished themselves in the experimental early aviation age in the Royal Flying Corps in World War One.
One of the airmen miraculously survived falling out of a plane without a parachute at 500ft.
Another was tragically killed when he was hit by a tanker in the Bay of Biscay.
Anthony Inglis-Williams has told the stories of his heroic ancestors in a new book, A Family of Aviators at War.
His son, Flight Lieutenant Dominic Howard-Williams, of 18 Squadron, is the latest member of the dynasty, flying Chinooks in the Middle East and Estonia.
Anthony, 73, a symphony orchestra conductor from Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, said: 'I have spoken to senior people in the RAF and they don't know of another family quite like it.
'I knew eight out of the nine and I'm incredibly proud of what they did.
'It is only since Lockdown that I researched their lives and I just wish I knew more about their accomplishments when they were alive but they were from the generation who did not want to talk about the war.
'I think there were lots of painful memories of lost friends.
'They were night fighters, pathfinders, Battle of Britain pilots, but none was killed in active service, which when you consider the high attrition rate is remarkable.
'My son flies Chinooks in the RAF now so he is carrying on the tradition.'
Anthony's grandfather, Air Commodore El (Bill) Howard-Williams, was an observer in a Sunbeam Short in 1916 when the novice pilot stalled and got into a flat spin, causing the machine to turn upside down.
Not wearing a seatbelt, he fell into the Suez Canal from the great height but somehow resurfaced and swam to safety.
He later said that his hard hat and bulky flying jacket saved his life.
His pilot, Sub Lieutenant Clifford, remained in the aircraft and was killed.
By the start of the Second World War, he had risen up the ranks to become Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's number two.
His other grandfather, Air Vice-Marshal Frank Inglis, was chief of RAF Intelligence during the Second World War and was sent to Pearl Harbour by Churchill to persuade US President Franklin D Roosevelt of the merits of a 'Germany First' policy.
He was on Adolf Hitler's hit list of 2,820 people for execution had Germany won the war.
Anthony's great-uncle, Air Commodore William Helmore, was a Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) pilot during the First World War.
His other great uncle, Air Marshall Sir Victor Goddard, was senior air commander to Lord Gort of the British Expeditionary Force during 1940.
He is said to have come up with the idea of sending 'Little Ships' to Dunkirk to evacuate BEF troops, which enabled 330,000 men to fight another day.
Gort had asked him to persuade Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, 1st Sea Lord, of the importance of sending more than the planned four destroyers to aid the evacuation of the British Army.
In the meeting, he suggested including private civilian yachts, lifeboats and other small vessels in the mass evacuation, as they could reach the dunes at La Panne.
Air Marshall Goddard was played by Sir Michael Redgrave in the film The Night My Number Came Up.
His father, Squadron Leader Jeremy Howard-Williams, was a night fighter pilot flying Beaufighters and Mosquitoes, who did a tour of duty in the legendary John 'Cat's Eyes' Cunnigham's 604 Squadron.
Wing Commander Cunningham shot down at least 16 German aircraft, which it was claimed owed much to a large consumption of carrots sharpening his eyesight,
Anthony's uncle, Wing Commander Peter Howard-Williams, was a distinguished Spitfire day fighter pilot who served with 19 Squadron in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.
A severe bout of appendicitis took him out of action for a few months but he returned to the cockpit with 118 Squadron in 1941 to earn a Distinguished Flying Cross for daring attacks on shipping and other targets on the coastline of occupied France.
He sunk one armed ship and damaged several others, while once surviving being jumped by nine Fw 190s.
He managed to shoot one of the enemy down before limping home in his shot-up aircraft, landing in a field on the Isle of Wight.
His DFC citation reads: 'This officer has participated in 24 operational sorties, including attacks on shipping and targets on the enemy occupied coastline of France.
'In the course of these operations he has been responsible for the sinking of one armed ship and damaging several others.
'In addition, he has attacked enemy wireless stations and a number of anti-aircraft posts, inflicting heavy damage.
'He has displayed exceptional keenness and, on many occasions, has obtained information which has proved of great value.
'He has destroyed two enemy aircraft and has set a splendid example of coolness, resource and fearlessness.'
Wing Commmander Howard-Williams played himself in the 1942 film First of the Few starring David Niven and Leslie Howard, the only film to be sanctioned by Winston Churchill to be shot on an active airfield.
He later wrote in his private papers, which have been poured through by Anthony: 'I must admit that in 1940 we always considered ourselves the good guys and the Germans the bad guys.
'I don't mean that we thought we were fighting a great evil – it wasn't until 4 years later that we all learnt of the horrors of the concentration camps Auschwitz–Buchenwald–Dachau and the extermination of over 6 million Jews in the gas chambers.'
Anthony's Pathfinder hero uncle, Group Captain Peter Helmore, of 27 Squadron, was killed when his yacht was hit by a tanker in the Bay of Biscay in 1969.
He and his crewman Giles Baker were sailing to Ankara in Turkey when they were caught in a storm nine miles west of Cadiz and were mowed down by a 4,500 tons Spanish tanker without a working radar.
The first the bridge crew knew of the collision was seeing a mast scrape down the side of the tanker.
By the time they had turned around, there was no sign of wreckage or human life.
The family's ranks are completed by other great-uncle Flight Lieutenant Cecil Turner, who flew in the 1930s and then calibrated radar sites during the war, and his uncle Air Commodore William Helmore.
Air Commodore Helmore invented the Helmover Torpedo and broadcast live from a Liberator over the D-Day beaches on June 6, 1944.
