Richard Gordon Wakeford Air Marshal Sir Richard ( Dickie ) Gordon Wakeford KCB OBE LVO AFC ( 20 April 1922 - 13 February 2007 ) was an officer in the Royal Air Force for 36 years , from 1941 to 1977 . Beginning as a pilot of flying boat s with Coastal Command , he became a flying instructor , and commanded the Queen ' s Flight . After various operational commands , his last post was as Deputy Chief of Defence ( Intelligence ) at the UK Ministry of Defence . Early life and war service . Wakeford was born in Torquay . He was educated at Kelly College in Tavistock , Devon . He joined the RAF in 1941 . After flight training with the US Navy at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida , he joined Coastal Command to fly anti - submarine missions . He flew Catalina flying boat s with No . 212 Squadron for 18 months from November 1942 , patrolling the Indian Ocean from its base in Karachi . After a period training other pilots of flying boats , he joined No . 210 Squadron in October 1944 , based at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands , patrolling the Norwegian Sea . He flew in support of Russian convoys and intercepted German submarines based in Norway . Wakeford was involved in the last sinking of a German U - boat , on 8 May 1945 . VE day was the previous day , and all German submarines had been ordered to travel on the surface : submerged U - boats were liable to be attacked . Flying a Catalina over the North Atlantic , Wakeford detected a submerged German submarine . Having run out of depth charge s , he dropped some sonobuoy s to track the U - boat before returning to base on the Shetland Islands . A second Catalina relieved him and damaged U - 320 . The German submarine was later scuttled off the coast of Norway . Post - war career . After the war , Wakeford flew long - range Liberator and York transport aircraft with Transport Command in the Far East . He became a flying instructor at the RAF College at Cranwell . He married Anne Butler in 1948 . He joined the Central Flying School as an examiner , testing other flying instructors , and received the AFC in 1953 . As a wing commander , he served in Malaya in 1955 , during the Malayan Emergency . He was appointed OBE in 1958 . He was then commander of the Queen ' s Flight from 1959 to 1961 , and was appointed MVO ( 4th Class ) . He spent two years at the RAF Staff College , and was then promoted to Group Captain . He became commander of the V bomber base at RAF Scampton in June 1964 , in charge of three squadrons of Vulcan bomber s . He was Assistant Commandant of the RAF College from 1966 to 1969 , during the period when it merged with the RAF Technical College at Henlow . He was promoted to Air Vice - Marshal in February 1969 , and became Commander of the Northern Maritime Air Region , and Air Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland ( AOSNI ) , based at Pitreavie Castle in Fife , where he was responsible for the squadrons that tracked Russian forces in the North Atlantic . He was Director of Service Intelligence at the Ministry of Defence , and was the second commander of the short - lived ANZUK Force , based in Singapore , from 1973 until it was disbanded in January 1975 . His last post was as Deputy Chief of Defence ( Intelligence ) at the Ministry of Defence , from 1975 to 1978 . He was appointed KCB in 1976 . Later life . He retired to Perthshire in 1977 , where he enjoyed fly fishing and golf . He was director of the RAF Benevolent Fund in Scotland from 1978 to 1989 , and served as a trustee of the MacRobert Trust from 1980 ( chairman from 1982 to 1994 ) , supporting hospitals and welfare organisations that assist ex - servicemen , and other educational organisations . He became a Commander of the Order of St John in 1986 and was awarded the inaugural President ' s Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1987 . He moved to Inchberry in Moray in 1987 . His wife died in 2002 . He died from cancer of the oesophagus in Aberdeen . He was survived by two sons , Richard and Christopher , and a daughter , Susan . A second daughter , Sally , predeceased him .