Eric Stanley Lock, DSO, DFC & Bar (19 April 1919 – 3 August 1941) was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War.

Lock became the RAF's most successful Allied pilot during the battle, shooting down 21 German aircraft and sharing in the destruction of one.

Lock went on to bring his overall total to 26 aerial victories, one shared destroyed and eight probable in 25 weeks of operational sorties over a one-year period, during which time he was hospitalised for six months.

[5] Within less than six months of becoming one of the most famous RAF pilots in the country, he disappeared after strafing German troops in his Supermarine Spitfire, presumably shot down by ground-fire.

Eric Stanley Lock was born in 1919 to a farming and quarrying family, whose home was in the rural Shropshire village of Bayston Hill.

[6] In 1939, he made the decision that if there was going to be a war, he wanted to be a fighter pilot, and so immediately joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

Lock returned to his unit and soon began combat patrols over the North of England, defending British airspace against Luftflotte 5 (Air Fleet 5) based in Norway.

In August RAF Fighter Command's bases came under attack as the Germans attempted to establish air superiority over southern England.

The battles grew larger in scale, but 41 Squadron, based in the north, were well clear of the main combat zone and saw little action for the first four weeks of the German air offensive.

On this date the Luftwaffe attempted to stretch Fighter Command by launching a wave of aircraft against targets in northern England where German intelligence believed there to be little opposition.

Climbing at 20,000 feet (6,100 m) north of Catterick Lock spotted a massed formation of Messerschmitt Bf 110s and Junkers Ju 88s.

[12] The following day, despite pain from his leg and against medical advice, Lock claimed his seventh victory, a Ju 88 off Dover at 09:00.

He has displayed great vigour and determination in pressing home his attacks.Lock continued to shoot enemy aircraft down regularly.

[10] On 20 September, he filed a curious report that saw him attack three "Heinkel He 113s", shooting down one and forcing the others to flee back to France.

[14] During that sortie he sighted a Henschel Hs 126 which he pursued across the English Channel before finally downing it over the German gun batteries at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

He has displayed great courage in the face of heavy odds, and his skill and coolness in combat have enabled him to destroy fifteen enemy aircraft within a period of nineteen days.No.

41 Squadron's pilots were placed on four weeks' rotation rest following the intense period of operational sorties, returning to RAF Hornchurch in early October 1940.

The Battle of Britain ended on 31 October 1940 and Lock, with 21 enemy aircraft destroyed, was the most successful Allied ace of the campaign.

The open throttle enabled the Spitfire to accelerate swiftly to 400 mph (640 km/h), leaving the Bf 109s in his wake, without Lock having to attempt to operate it with his injured right arm.

At 20,000 feet (6,100 m) he began to descend and with little control and no means of slowing the fighter down, he could not execute a safe landing; being too badly injured to parachute to safety, Lock was in a perilous situation.

After losing height to 2,000 feet (610 m), Lock switched the engine off and found a suitable crash site near RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, into which he glided the stricken fighter for a "wheels down" landing.

By this point, Lock had lost so much blood that he was unconscious, and so unable to feel the additional pain of being dropped three times, once into a dyke of water.

[16] After being transferred to the Princess Mary's Hospital at RAF Halton, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 17 December 1940.

In November, 1940, whilst engaged with his squadron in attacking a superior number of enemy forces, he destroyed two Messerschmitt 109's, thus bringing his total to at least twenty-two.

His magnificent fighting spirit and personal example have been in the highest traditions of the service.Lock underwent fifteen separate operations over the following three months to remove shrapnel and other metal fragments from his wounds.

[16] For the following three months he remained at Halton recuperating from his injuries, leaving on only one occasion to travel on crutches and in full uniform to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI presented him with his DSO, DFC and Bar.

[20][21] The nurses wore anti-infection masks and gloves, and Eric, "with an amiable grin" would curse them for it "from dawn till dusk".

[24] On 3 August 1941, Lock was returning from a fighter "Rhubarb" when he spotted a column of German troops and vehicles on a road near the Pas-de-Calais.

[33][34][35] His name is carved on Panel 29 of the Runnymede Memorial, along with the 20,400 other British and Commonwealth airmen who were posted missing in action during the war.

Lock is named as a member of the Guinea Pig Club (made up of patients of Archibald McIndoe) on a Roll of Honour at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex.