Fighter pilot who was shot down twice and went on to become a distinguished
civil servant
Sir Alec Atkinson, who has died aged 96,
flew Spitfires and Typhoons during the Second World War before embarking
on a distinguished career in the Civil Service.
He joined No 609 (West Riding of Yorkshire) Squadron in December 1940
and flew Spitfires. He was soon flying many sweeps over northern France,
often escorting light bombers to their targets. On May 17, 1941 a
Messerschmitt Bf 109 damaged his aircraft in an engagement near Dover.
Barely able to fly the aircraft after its controls had been shot away,
he managed to crash land in a ploughed field near Rochester. The farmer
was close by, took one look at the crashed aircraft and carried on with
his work.
Later in the year Atkinson
was shot down again. This time he was over Boulogne when an enemy
fighter attacked him at 2,000 feet. He headed for Kent but was forced to
bale out in the middle of the English Channel. Fortunately, a lone
Spitfire saw him and radioed his position. Some time later he was picked
up from his dinghy by a Royal Navy rescue ship and taken to Naval
officer’s mess at Dover where it was reported he was well looked after.
After the squadron converted to the Typhoon, he flew many sorties over
France attacking ground targets and trains. On January 20 1943 the
Luftwaffe attempted a hit and run raid against London. Seven Typhoons
were scrambled and in the ensuing air battle, six German aircraft were
shot down, one by Atkinson. Two weeks later he damaged a Dornier bomber,
and on February 26, he shot down a Focke Wulf 190 off Boulogne.
Atkinson left No. 609 in April 1943 having served on the squadron for
more than two years, an unusually long period to fly operations without a
rest and longer than any other 609 Squadron pilot. When he left the
squadron, having flown hundreds of hours in the RAF’s latest fighters,
he was still unable to drive a car.
In May he was awarded the DFC for his “keenness and devotion to duty”.
John Alexander Atkinson, known since his RAF days as Joe, was born on
June 9 1919 and educated at Kingswood School and Queen’s College, Oxford
where he learnt to fly with the University Air Squadron.
He was
called up at the beginning of the war, completed his training as a
fighter pilot and was posted to fly Spitfires with No 234 Squadron.
After a short period he joined No 609 Squadron at Biggin Hill.
After his long tour with the squadron he was an instructor at a fighter
training unit before spending 18 months training pilots at the RAF
College in Cranwell. He was demobbed in October 1945 with the rank of
flight lieutenant.
After the war Atkinson entered the Civil
Service, serving initially in the ministry of national insurance, where
he became an assistant principal in 1946, and then a principal in 1949.
He worked in the Cabinet Office from 1950 to 1952 and during 1957-58 he
was permanent private secretary to the minister of pensions and national
insurance.
Between 1966 and 1973 he was assistant secretary,
then under secretary to the minister of social security (later the
department of health and social security). He remained in the department
for a further three years as deputy secretary. He was appointed CB in
1976. On promotion to second permanent secretary in the department he
was advanced to KCB in 1978.
After retiring in 1979 he became a
member of the panel of chairmen of the Civil Service selection board
until 1988 and was chairman of the occupational pensions board from 1981
to 1988.
He was chairman of the Carnegie Trust’s committee of
inquiry into the arts for disabled people and was a trustee of the
Oxford and Cambridge club where he had been a member for over 50 years.
He was also a patron of Conquest, a local Sussex charity providing art
classes for disabled people.
Atkinson was described by a wartime
colleague as “modest, scholastic and amusingly introspective”. During
his Civil Service years, he served under Dick Crossman who recorded in
his published memoirs “that Atkinson knows his stuff”. Crossman later
added that he was the best civil servant in either of the departments of
the DHSS. Barbara Castle, another of his ministers, paid him tribute in
her memoirs.
He had a great love for the music of Cole Porter,
was a regular attendee at the Chichester festival, a keen reader of
political biographies and, together with his wife, enjoyed tending their
garden.
He married Marguerite “Peggy” Pearson in December 1945. She died in 2004. Their daughter survives him.
Sir Alec Atkinson, born June 9 1919, died August 8 2015
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