Ingvar Fredrik Håkansson

Ingvar Fredrik Håkansson (4 September 1920 – 9 July 1944) was a Swedish volunteer fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. Since Sweden was neutral in the war, Håkansson was one of few Swedes that served in RAF.

Onset of the war Håkansson's mother was British and his father a captain from Sweden. At the age of five, Håkansson moved with his family from the United Kingdom to Sweden and settled in the city of Gothenburg. In the summer of 1939 he became an apprentice engineer on one of the vessels of the Swedish shipping company Transatlantic.

In 1940, he found himself on a ship in South-America unable to go home to Sweden because war had started in Norway. At this time also, word reached him that Swedish vessels, including those of his father's shipping company were being bombed by the Germans despite Sweden's neutrality in the war. He decided to go to the UK, and disembarked his ship in the USA.

He then boarded a Norwegian ship and crossed the Atlantic to the UK. The journey was a risky one and several of the vessels in his convoy were torpedoed. However, Håkansson arrived safely in the UK and by this time he had made up his mind that he wanted to become a fighter pilot in RAF. After his recovery, Håkansson was transferred to 610 Squadron where his unit escorted American bomber planes over occupied France. as well as in St George's Royal Air Force Chapel of Remembrance at the former RAF station Biggin Hill.