Flt Lt Derek Elliott Till died in Bedford, Massachusetts, on April 21, 2020. He was 97.

Till was born in Eastleigh in 1922 and grew up in Woking. Upon leaving school at 16 he joined the Civil Service and was stationed at Whitehall during the blitz, acting as a “firewatcher” on the roof three nights a week.

As soon as he was of age he volunteered for the RAF and, following initial training in Torquay and Desford, he was sent to Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme.  Upon his return to England he was posted to 576 Squadron, 1 Group, as a pilot with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. Based at Elsham Wolds, and latterly at Fiskerton, he flew 37 operational sorties in Lancasters and was awarded the DFC following an incident on a raid to Zeitz.  His navigator’s oxygen line became disconnected, and due to his disorientation, gave incorrect headings until they had lost the main bomber stream.  Discovering the oxygen problem, they calculated a new course to the target and ended up bombing alone.

Following the end of his tour of duty, Till was sent to the Pacific Theatre as part of Tiger Force.  Upon the end of the war in the Pacific, he was posted to Burma with 85 Repair and Salvage Unit, flying DC3’s out of Mingaladon Airfield, and finishing his tour as Acting Squadron Leader, returned to England in 1946.

In 1947 Till married Mary Berna, a writer from Cleveland, Ohio, and entered the University of London. Upon completion of his chemistry degree in 1951, they emigrated to Concord, Massachusetts in the United States, where Till worked for 34 years as a consulting chemist at Arthur D. Little, where he ultimately led the Product Development section. Mary died in 1993, and he married Patricia Blevins Butcher in 1995 with whom he lived until her death in 2016.

Derek is survived by his three children, Stephen, Alison and Peter, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.