FORMER RAF navigator Ken Dodwell, who lived in Bournemouth for 34 years, died on December 20, aged 94.

Brought up in Northwick Park in London, Mr Dodwell volunteered for the Royal Air Force in May 1940, but his desire to become a fighter pilot was thwarted by his less than 20/20 vision.

His eyesight had been damaged while boxing at Highgate and John Lyon schools. Aside from pugilism, Mr Dodwell proved himself an all-round sportsman at school, winning many trophies at swimming and athletics.

When he was 10 his father was appointed as general manager of Bobby’s in Bournemouth, and he regularly visited the town and nearby Poole during his youth, nurturing a love of sailing and the bay.

During the early years of the Second World War he was posted to 31 ANS, a Canadian air navigation school at Goderich, near Port Albert, Ontario. Nearly a third of students on his course were killed in accidents – a grim sign of what was to come.

In the end only three survived the war.

Mr Dodwell turned 21 on the voyage back from Canada and was posted to Lossiemouth, joined initially by his best friend from Canada Arthur Sims, who was later killed when his aircraft crashed into a hill in bad weather.

Assigned to ‘Q for Queenie’ 115 Squadron, Mr Dodwell flew as a navigator on Wellington bombers equipped with the new Gee navigational aid. His crew were the first to complete a tour of 30 operations, during a period when the squadron was wiped out twice in 13 months.

They acted as the pathfinder unit marking targets for the first 1,000-bomber raid against Germany at Cologne. The last few minutes of the bombing run, as the aircraft had to be kept straight and level, were particularly harrowing for the crews and required steady nerves.

One mistake in Mr Dodwell’s navigation and his crew faced the varied dangers of getting lost, crashing through lack of fuel or flying over a heavily fortified area.

The war taught him two important lessons – ‘trust yourself’ and ‘pay attention to the details’ – which he carried on into civilian life.

Struggling to find work in the late 1940s, he took a job as a travelling salesman, selling lampshades up and down the country from his Austin 7.

Then, for four decades he sold ladies’ fashions from Birmingham to stores across the Midlands.

He retired at the age of 55 and moved with his wife to Bournemouth. He was a member of North Haven Yacht Club and also an avid golfer.

Mr Dodwell leaves his wife Jean, a WAAF he met at RAF Marham in 1942, and one son and three daughters. A funeral service will take place at St Ambrose Church in West Cliff on January 19.