Raymond Towers Holmes, born Cheshire, was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot during WW2 who is best known for an event that occurred during the Battle of Britain, on 15 September 1940. He reportedly saved Buckingham Palace from being hit by German bombs by ramming his Hawker Hurricane into a Dornier Do 17 bomber. His Hurricane crashed at the junction of Ebury Bridge Road and Buckingham Palace Road but Holmes had bailed out and, landing in a back garden, survived.
Of the German crew: 3, including the pilot, were killed, while 2 others survived.
Astonishingly there is a photo of the Dornier falling after the aerial crash, which we've used here in the absence of a photo of Holmes.
Holmes was present when the engine block was retrieved during excavations in 2003.
Source: where we learn that the above version of the events is challenged.
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