Group Captain John Cunningham CBE DSO** DFC* AE DL
Flight Lieutenant John Cunningham was "B" Flight Commander of No.604 Squadron, AuxAF,
first at Northolt and then Middle Wallop throughout the Battle of Britain.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on the 28th January 1941

John Cunningham was born near Croydon on 27th July 1917 and educated at Whitgift school. In 1935 he became an apprentice at the de Havilland Aircraft Company, Hatfield. In November 1935 he joined No.604 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force and having learnt to fly was appointed by de Havilland to take part in light aircraft development and test flying between 1938-39. He enlisted in August 1939 and was made ‘B’ flight commander of No.604 soon after.

His first three victories were achieved flying with Sergeant J.R. Phillipson, a Ju 88 on 19 November 1940 and He 111s on 23 December 1940 and 3 January 1941. On 12 January 1941 he teamed up with Sergeant C.F. Rawnsley and they went on to become the best-known British night-fighting partnership of the war. Their first success was a He 111 shot down on 15 February 1941, the start of a partnership of 13 victories between then and 23 May 1942. He took command of No 604 Squadron in August 1941 and led it through to July 1942. He was then posted, along with Rawnsley, to 81 Group to direct the work of night-fighter OTUs.

In January 1943 he was given command of No 85 Squadron with Rawnsley as his Navigation Leader. There followed another 4 victories before he was posted to HQ 11 Group at Group Captain, Night Operations, in March 1944. Released from the RAF in 1945 he went on to re-join de Havilland and had a most distinguished career as Chief Test Pilot, testing a great number of new aircraft, including the Comet. He re-joined the RAuxAF and commanded No.604 Squadron from July 1946 until 1948. He left the de Havilland Aircraft Company in 1977, while at the time he was also an Executive Director of Hawker Siddeley Aviation (1963-1977). He was then Executive Director of British Aerospace at Hatfield 1978-1980. In addition to his unique set of decorations he also holds the Russian Order of Patriotic War 1st Class and the USA Silver Star