Arthur Scarf - from Stratford NFU to heroic RAF pilot awarded the Victoria Cross
READ down the list of the names on the war memorial in Stratford and among the brave men who sacrificed their lives you will find Arthur Scarf.
The RAF squadron leader, who was known as Pongo, never made it back from the Far East. But the tale of his bravery did return to these shores – and it earned him a Victoria Cross.
That same Battle of Malaya VC, one of four awarded, sold at auction last week for a new world record – £660,000 when all the fees were included.
Born in 1913 in Wimbledon, Arthur held a position at what was to become the NFU Mutual in Stratford, working in the claims department between the wars. He left to join the RAF in 1936, ending up in the Far East campaign commanding No 62 Squadron.
Arthur and his crew bravely made a bombing raid on their own after seeing the rest of the Blenheims on the mission destroyed or damaged before they could even get ‘wheels up’.
It was on 9th December, 1941, and the squadron had been taking off from the Butterworth airfield near Penang in Malaysia, south of the border with Thailand. The mission was to try to stem the relentless Japanese aerial bombardments coming out of Signora, southern Thailand.
But the Japanese struck first.
With no bomber or fighter plane support, Arthur, aged 28, made the daring daylight raid alone, despite being constantly harassed by the enemy.
The crew completed the bombing run, but the Japanese continued to attack Arthur’s plane as he tried to return to base. The aircraft was riddled with bullets and Arthur was severely wounded, his left arm had been shattered, he had a large hole in his back and was drifting in and out of consciousness.
Somehow, with the assistance of his two sergeants, he kept pressure on the controls and managed to crash-land at Alor Star, where he was rushed to hospital.
During the fight to save his life, two pints of blood were donated by a nurse who was a match – that turned out to be his wife, Sallie. They had been married for only a few months and she was carrying their unborn child.
An account of the day, written by one of Sallie’s colleagues, recalled: “We heard that they had bombed the airfield and two officers we knew had been killed.
“In the afternoon a telephone message relayed that a casualty was being admitted. To my surprise it was Pongo Scarf, Sallie’s husband. Pongo was accompanied by the RAF doctor, Dr Peach, who sedated him and treated him for shock. He had a bad wound in the shoulder where he had been hit by a Jap fighter, but he managed to bring his plane back and land in a nearby paddy field.
“His navigator and gunner were not seriously hurt. Pongo was quite conscious and cheerful when I went over to the bungalow for tea, leaving him in the charge of the Indian dresser on duty, but we were hurriedly summoned back to the hospital when it was discovered Pongo was suffering a secondary haemorrhage.
“Sallie, matron and I rushed across and, until the doctor could be summoned, we gave him a sub-mammary saline which, in those faraway days before the inception of intensive care, was considered efficacious in the cases of collapse and shock.
“When the doctor arrived, blood had to be typed for transfusion. I offered mine, being a universal donor, but Sallie’s blood was found to be more compatible, and was accepted. Pongo was moved to the theatre for transfusion and repair of wounds under anaesthetic.
“Pongo started to slip away and I hurried to where Sallie was resting. We both rushed back to the theatre, but I think Pongo had already left us.”
Because of the fall of Singapore, it was more than four years until Sallie was presented with Arthur’s Victoria Cross.
The award was sold by the auctioneers Spink last week after it was put up for sale by a descendant of the Scarf family.
Twenty-six RAF Victoria Crosses have been awarded to date, half were awarded posthumously. Some 250 NFU Mutual employees served in the Second World War, 16 of whom died.
