Hugh Malcolm led a number of daring missions in North Africa in 1942 before he died in a Bristol Blenheim V in Tunisia. These sorties all contributed to the decision to award him a posthumous Victoria Cross
Huge Malcolm was a proud Scot, born in Dundee on May 2, 1917 and educated at Craigfiower Preparatory School near Dunfermline and Glenalmond College in Perthshire. He enrolled at Cranwell on January 9, 1936 and graduated as a commissioned pilot in December 1937.
He was assigned to 26 Sqn at RAF Catterick, Yorkshire the same month and after Christmas he was briefly seconded to the School of Army Co-operation at Old Sarum, Wiltshire to learn how to fly the Westland Lysander.
On May 20, 1939 Malcolm’s career was almost cut short when he crashed a Lysander while practising for the Empire Air Day flying display at Manchester. He suffered a fractured skull and spent four months in hospital – where he met the nurse who would later become his wife.
