Jeremy Howard-Williams

Jeremy Napier Howard-Williams D.F.C. (13 March 1922 – 8 September 1995) was a Second World War fighter pilot who later wrote several books including what became the "classic account of the sail-maker's art".

Family and education Howard-Williams was the son of Air Commodore Ernest Leslie Howard-Williams, an officer in the Royal Air Force, and Norah Christabel Gibson. He was educated at Hordle House School at Milford on Sea, Hampshire and then at Felsted in Essex and the Institut de Touraine at Tours, France. serving in No. 604 Squadron, known as the night fighter squadron, based at Middle Wallop, under the command of Group Captain John "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham, flying Bristol Beaufighters.

He achieved the rank of Flight Lieutenant, although he acted as Squadron Leader. At the end of the war he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry. The citation read:This officer has completed a very large number of sorties and throughout has set a fine example of keenness and devotion to duty. He has shot down at least two enemy aircraft, whilst in attacks on targets on the ground he has most effectively attacked numerous locomotives and mechanical vehicles. His resolute work has won great praise.

After the war he served in Singapore, Germany and finally as Assistant Air Attaché to the British Embassy in Paris.

In 1976, he published Night Intruder: A Personal Account of the Radar War between the RAF and Luftwaffe Nightfighter Forces, in which he details his time with the Fighter Interception Unit describing how to fly and navigate a Mosquito, and his missions against the German night fighter airfields. The book also explains how radar altered the air combat environment in the Second World War.

He retired in 1982 to live at Warsash, near Southampton, where he wrote The Complete Crossword Companion, which remains in print and was his biggest earner.

His ashes were scattered on the Solent. "Sails" 1967 "Racing Dinghy Sails" 1971 "Crewing for Offshore Racing" 1973 "Night Intruder: A Personal Account of the Radar War between the RAF and Luftwaffe Nightfighter Forces" 1976 "Care and Repair of Sails" 1976 "Practical Pilotage" 1977 "Offshore Crew" 1979 "The Complete Crossword Companion" 1984 "The Complete Cryptic Crossword Companion" 1985 "Small Boat Sails" 1987 "Canvas Work" 1989