Distinguished Old Framlinghamians

The son of a successful racehorse trainer, he joined the Royal Navy in 1947. He transferred to the Royal Australian Nay (RAN) in 1969/70 where he went on to have a successful career. He ended up Commander of HMAS HARMAN, the RAN’s major Communications Station and Administrative base for the Canberra region. During that time he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to Military Communications.

He served in the RAF for 31 year and was awarded the Air Force Cross for his exceptional assessments as a pilot and instructor on jet aircraft. On 15 July 1953, he took part in the Queen’s Coronation Review, flying a Vampire. His total flying hours on retirement were 3,900.45. He died on 28 July 2013 and was the brother of GENERAL SIR PATRICK HOWARD-DOBSON GCB (R33-40)

During WW2 served in 38 Squadron of the RAF. On 1 January 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and his citation describes in detail a raid on a ships convoy. He subsequently went on to be personal pilot to Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos. He died in 2008. His widow Yela “Peter” Fowler bequeathed $1m to the Society to honour and preserve his name and the Society gave £500,000 to the College to enable various projects to be set up in the Fowler name, including the Fowler Pavilion which was opened in 2017. This has on display many of his artifacts.

Rose to the rank of Air Vice-Marshal in the RAF Medical Branch, specialising in Otorhinolaryngology. In 1964 he was appointed OBE and in 1987 was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and Commander of the Order of St John. From 1979 to 1987 he was an Honorary Surgeon to HM the Queen. Is recognised as the co-descriptor of the “King-Kopetzky Syndrome”. Also past Vice-President of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. Also taught Simon Dougherty (G60-67) – see below.

During WW2 he was in Bomber Command for a while and then on D Day was a glider tug pilot and towed Bryan Hebblethwaite (34-39) on D Night. He towed him again over Arnhem where sadly Bryan was killed. After WW2 he was as a pilot involved in the Berlin Airlift and flew 250 times to Berlin and back. Afterwards he was involved here and in Australia with the VIP flight. He has lived in Australia since 1986. In 2014 his biography was documented in a book by Jenifer Simpson OAM and you can read that in full here.  A few days after celebrating his 90th birthday he died and you can read the obituary in the Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Weeknd Australia.

During WW2 he served in the Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve, 625 Squadron. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 19 December 1944 and subsequently a bar.

Had a long and distinguished career during WW2 and afterwards in secret intelligence. It wasn’t until over a conversation at the 1995 AGM that he finally whispered, at the age of 80, that “I was a spy”! He was awarded the DSC for operations during early 1944 in preparation for the D Day landings. He was awarded an OBE in 1957.

During a distinguished career in WW2, he played an important part from D Day through to the liberation of Holland. In 2011 he was finally awarded Holland’s highest Military Decoration, the Royal Order of Knights of the Military Order of William. In 2014 he was their oldest knight of the order. At the beginning of 2016 he was also awarded France’s highest award, the Legion d’Honneur as a Normandy veteran and on 18 January 2017 he celebrated his centenary in style with family, Dutch and OF events. Ken died on 13 May 2021 at the age of 104 making him the oldest ever OF that we are aware of.  Read Richard Sayer’s obituary and see those published in the Telegraph and Times and the eulogy given at his memorial service in the College Chapel on 5 March 2022.