Brian John Edward "Sandy" Lane DFC (18 June 1917 – 13 December 1942) was a fighter pilot and flying ace of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War.

Flying the Supermarine Spitfire fighter, he shot down a number of German aircraft during sorties to support the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk during the period late May to early June 1940.

Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in July, he became the squadron's permanent commander two months later, by which time it was engaged in the Battle of Britain.

After leaving school, Lane worked as a factory supervisor before applying for a short service commission in the Royal Air Force (RAF) after losing his job in 1935.

3 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training at Hamble and two months later he was provisionally accepted into the RAF as an acting pilot officer.

In early 1939 it started converting to the Hawker Hurricane fighter by which time Lane was a flying officer, having been promoted to this rank the previous December.

[1] This was based at Duxford and operated Supermarine Spitfire fighters, having been the first unit in the RAF to receive the type two years previously.

[1][9] For the next several months the squadron mostly carried out protective patrols over shipping convoys plying the east coast but in late May 1940 it moved to Hornchurch from where it was involved in providing aerial cover over the beaches at Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France.

Squadron Leader Philip Pinkham took command of the unit and later that month it commenced trials with cannon-equipped Spitfires.

[1] In July the squadron resumed operational duties, again carrying out convoy patrols, but it soon became drawn into defending the Luftwaffe's campaign against the southeast of England.

[8] At the end of the month, Lane, an acting flight lieutenant, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

[4][8][11] The Duxford Wing arose from an initiative of Bader's, calling for three squadrons to be scrambled at the same and in an coordinated group engage approaching Luftwaffe bomber formations.

Flying an interception sortie on 11 September, he shot down a pair of Bf 110s and damaged a Heinkel He 111 medium bomber, all over Gravesend.

He initially served at the Air Headquarters Western Desert but in February 1942 was moved to the RAF's Middle East Command.

Vc and tasked with carrying out patrols along the English coastline and offensive sorties, known as 'Rhubarbs', to German-occupied Europe.

[17] Lane made his first operational flight with the squadron on 13 December, leading three other Spitfires on a Rhubarb to the Dutch coast.

[19][20] A permanent memorial plaque, organised by local resident Paul Baderman, was unveiled on Lane's childhood home in Pinner on 25 September 2011, 69 years after his presumed death.