Number 13

At war's beginning, blond, reticent Robert Hampton Gray, 27, was a student at the University of British Columbia, hoping eventually to become a physician. By 1940 he was a sublieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm. In five years he won a citation for dive-bombing attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, a D.S.C. for sinking a Japanese destroyer. On Aug. 9, 1945, five days before war's end, he skimmed off the flight deck of the carrier Formidable, led an eight-plane attack on Japanese warships outside Tokyo Bay. Tearing through heavy flak, he piloted his riddled, blazing fighter to within 50 feet of his target, bagged his second Jap destroyer before he plummeted to his death in the sea.

Last week this "selfless and sustained devotion to duty" brought for "Hammy" Gray the British Empire's highest award for valor--the Victoria Cross. He was Canada's 13th V.C. and the sixth from British Columbia.

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