Alfred Marshall (RAF officer)

Alfred Marshall, DFC, DFM (1915 – 27 November 1944) was a British flying ace who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was credited with having shot down at least eighteen aircraft, plus one V-1 flying bomb.

Born in Portsmouth, Marshall joined the RAF in 1931 as an aircraft apprentice. Qualifying as a metal worker three years later, he subsequently trained as a sergeant pilot and was posted to No. 73 Squadron several months after the commencement of the Second World War. He claimed some aerial victories while the squadron operated in France and in the subsequent Battle of Britain. In late 1940, the squadron was transferred to the Middle East and subsequently flew in the Western Desert campaign, Marshall achieving many successes, until he was rested in May 1941 and awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal. He then served as an instructor and was commissioned as an officer. He returned to operations in the Western Desert with a posting to No. 250 Squadron in April 1942, destroying more aircraft. He returned to the United Kingdom four months later to again take up instructing duties. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in October 1942, he was posted to No. 25 Squadron in July 1944. Later in the year he was killed in a flying accident, when his aircraft broke up in midair during an air test.