A WARTIME bomber pilot who earned the DFC and MBE and went on to serve with the RAF until 1968 died, aged 91, at his home in New Milton.

Sq Ldr Walter Montagu “Gordon” Wing was born in 1919 in Oxfordshire and moved to Leeds when he was a small boy with parents Charlotte and Walter.

He volunteered for the RAF at the outbreak of war in September 1939 and after training flew Whitley bombers with 58 Squadron and then Halifaxes with 35 Squadron where his Group Captain was Leonard Cheshire.

In April 1942, 35 Squadron was involved in disabling the German battleship Tirpitz in Trondheim Fjord, Norway.

His widow, Anne, 74, said: “Twenty six planes went on that mission and only four came back and my husband was one of them.

“They got back in time for breakfast in the mess and then they went out the next night and again the next night. There was no let up then.”

On May 30, he and his colleagues went on a raid over Cologne, on June 1 there was a raid on Essen and on June 3 another on Bremen.

In August that year he received his DFC from King George VI at Buckingham Palace. In January 1943 he was posted to Bomber Command to carry out experimental work.

After the war he went on to serve in Singapore before returning to the UK where he carried out various administrative jobs for the RAF.

He was awarded the MBE by the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth in 1953 and was promoted to Squadron Leader 10 years later.

After retiring from the service he went on to work as an accounts administrator at a Lymington boatyard before joining Airwork Ltd at Hurn as recruitment officer, retiring in 1984.

He married Anne, his second wife in 1971. Together they had a daughter Rosalind and two grandchildren. He also leaves a son from a previous marriage.

His funeral will take place at St Mary Magdalene Church, Old Milton at 2pm on Wednesday.