Flight Lieutenant David Murray Peden DFC QC (19 October 1923 – 6 January 2022) was a Canadian air force officer, lawyer, and author.

From 1941 to 1945 Peden served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a bomber pilot and completed the majority of his tour of duty with No.

Prior to his 18th birthday, Peden had become intent on joining the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).

In the spring of 1941, aged 17, Peden attended a recruitment rally in the Winnipeg Auditorium at which Air Marshal Billy Bishop spoke.

On the morning of Monday, 20 October 1941, the day after his 18th birthday, Peden visited the Lindsay Building where he enlisted in the RCAF, being given the rank of Aircraftsman Second Class and the service number R134578, and was ordered to report to No.

At High River, the new pilot learned to fly in de Havilland Tiger Moths, and on 16 May 1942, he made his first solo flight.

As the latter was a short train trip to his home in Winnipeg, he elected to go to Dauphin, leaving High River on 3 July.

On 16 October 1942 he made his final flight at Dauphin, at which point his total flying time was approximately 225 hours.

The crew also acquired an additional two members: flight engineer Bill Bailey and mid-upper gunner Bert Lester.

Peden and his crew arrived at RAF Chedburgh late in the afternoon of 22 September, ready to begin the operational tour.

"[3] Following the sortie he explained his feeling of relief, stating, "[w]e had been flying for five hours and 25 minutes, and I had never experienced a sensation of relief quite as intoxicatingly satisfying as what I felt as I climbed out the rear doors and stepped onto the lovely, wonderful, marvelous, fabulous, solid old concrete of that good old dispersal.

Before the evening's sortie, King George and Queen Elizabeth visited the station to inspect the crews that would fly that night, and later joined them for afternoon tea in the officers' mess.

They later flew in a mining raid on the Le Havre harbour on the night of 22/23 November, and then had an aborted sortie on 11 December.

Peden and crew rejoined 214 Squadron, which had been posted to RAF Downham Market, on 13 December, and on the 18th was granted leave.

Through February and March the airmen of 214 acclimatized themselves to the B-17, and from 4 to 12 April, Peden's crew flew exercises with the Bomber Development Unit at RAF Newmarket.

In this first sortie as part of 100 Group, the crew undertook its new supporting duty of disrupting VHF communication between German controllers and pilots.

During their time at Oulton, the men of 214 Squadron met Margaret Lockwood and James Mason, who were filming The Wicked Lady at Blickling Hall.

During this trip Peden detoured over Gelsenkirchen, at which time Stan Stanley urinated out the opening in the side of the B-17 onto the Nordstern plant below.

Around 14 July Peden attended a special investiture ceremony for Canadians held at Buckingham Palace.

The ship arrived in Wolfe's Cove on 31 July, and on 1 August Peden boarded a westbound train.

Peden's legal career began as a Crown Attorney, Province of Manitoba (1952–55), and subsequently included private practice (1955–57), General Counsel, Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission (1957–60), Corporate Council, Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg (1960–61), Assistant Deputy Minister, Municipal Affairs (1961–64), and Deputy Minister, Public Utilities (1964–68).

[6] For many years Peden has been a supporter of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, located in Nanton, Alberta, near RCAF Station High River.

In response to the museum's proposal, Peden responded, "This is a tribute I will never forget, I assure you; and I am absolutely delighted that you are inclined to make this gesture.

Apart from the great distinction you thus confer on me, your actions, to my mind, mark a deeply satisfying recognition of the wartime service of so many other young men at No.

He described the decision as "among the most serious mistakes made by a Canadian politician in peacetime, and it was based upon a culpably restricted assessment of some of the most important factors in the situation.

"[9] Further, he argued that after the cancellation of the project, rather than scrapping the completed planes, the government should have transferred them to the RCAF for testing and research.

[10] Peden's second book, and the work for which he remains best-known, was the memoir A Thousand Shall Fall: A Pilot in 214, published in 1979.

Peden's account depicts the gamut of wartime experiences, including humorous episodes from leaves, terror while in combat, and the desolation after learning of friends’ deaths.

Reviewing the book in 1984, C. P. Stacey, former director of the Canadian Army Historical Section, said: In a letter to the author dated 29 November 1979, former Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris wrote: A Thousand Shall Fall was first published by Canada's Wings in 1979, with a second edition in 1982.

Norman Shannon wrote of the situation, “[w]hen Stoddart Publishers succumbed to financial pressures among other things, history buffs mourned the loss of a classic book on WWII aviation, assuming that the most personal yet comprehensive account of Canadian airmen in WWII would be lost.”[13] In 2004, however, Dundurn Press acquired the title and released a new printing.