James Atterby McCairns, DFC & Two Bars, MM (21 September 1919 – 13 June 1948) was an English pilot with the Royal Air Force.

[3] His mother brought him to England for the first time aboard the ocean liner Regina sailing from Montreal and arriving in Liverpool on 18 June 1922.

They visited family at Brigg, Lincolnshire before returning to Quebec on 30 September 1922 aboard the ocean liner Canopic.

He had an early fascination for flight and joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in March 1939 as a trainee pilot, service number 754718.

[6] Flying with the squadron from RAF Tangmere under the command of Douglas Bader on 30 June 1941 McCairns had a close call during an offensive sweep over occupied France when his aircraft was hit and explosive shells entered his cockpit.

[7] On 6 July 1941 after applying for a commission in the morning he was flying over the French coast with Douglas Bader when the squadron was involved in a fast moving combat with Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters from which McCairns did not return.

London was made aware of his escape by the agent and guides and passage arranged to Gibraltar which he successfully reached via France and Spain.

Langley discussed with McCairns the use of the Westland Lysander to insert and extract agents and escaped prisoners of war from the occupied countries.

[17] Back in England he was promoted to flight sergeant and on 14 August 1942 was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery and achievement in his successful escape.

Originally refused permission to fly the aircraft for these operations due to his junior rank, lack of the required 500 hours night-flying experience, inability to speak fluent French and a ruling forbidding escaped prisoners of war from operations in the theatre in which they were captured, he and Langley fought their case and won.

Problems were sometimes encountered with aircraft getting stuck in waterlogged fields, bushes and small trees causing damage and animals straying into the way.

Wing Commander Charles Pickard assumed command of the squadron in October 1942, and McCairns flew his first "special duties" mission as navigator to Pickard on the night 22 November 1942 when a pair of Lysanders landed in France to insert 2 agents and bring 3 back to England safely.

[25] On the night of 25–26 November 1942 he flew his first solo mission delivering two agents into France and returned with two passengers, one of them Colonel de Linares, military assistant to General Henri Giraud.

[28] The secret nature of his operations meant the wording in his citation was curtailed: Flying Officer James Atterby McCAIRNS, M.M.

Perhaps his most dangerous mission was on the night of 14/15 April 1943 when an operator choose a field near Amboise that did not have a clear flare path.

On returning safely to RAF Tangmere McCairns recounted that he had flown at low level along the Loire waiting for his turn to land and had heard a strange "phitt" sound in the cockpit.

[32] While with 161 McCairns had flown out many British, French and Belgian SOE agents and similar covert operations personnel, and returned with many others, along with a number of US and the Commonwealth airmen who had either been shot down and were evading capture or had been interned and escaped from their prison camp.

[37] After the war McCairns transferred to the re-constituted Royal Auxiliary Air Force, effective 3 May 1947 as a flight lieutenant, service number 91315.

[40][41] The Times Monday on 14 June 1948 reported: A Mosquito aircraft of 616 South Yorkshire Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force, crashed and burst into flames a mile east of Finningley RAF Station to-day when on a local flight.

The pilot Flying Officer J A McCairns DFC MM who lived near Bawtry, and a serving airman whose next-of-kin are not yet notified, were killed.

The ground crews heard one of the engines making an unusual noise and saw the aircraft bank round the airport and nose-dive to the ground.His passenger was AC2 (2321296) Edward Shaw of Dipton, County Durham.

Both men were killed when their Mosquito plane crashed and caught fire near Finningley RAF Station on Sunday.