Notes
Clement Fletcher Royds was born on 13 May 1923, the third and youngest son of the Reverend Prebendary Thomas Fletcher Royds BD MA (Worcester College, 1899) and Bertha (née Milward). He was educated at Marlborough College from 1936 to 1942, where he was a Foundation Scholar, a Junior and Senior Scholar, and later appointed as Head Boy.
Clement Royds entered Worcester College, Oxford, on 24 April 1942 as an RAF Cadet on a wartime short course. He was subsequently commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the RAFVR on 12 November 1943 and was promoted to Flying Officer on 12 May 1944.
At 1.30pm on 14 February 1945 Clement Royds took off from Vokel in Holland with eight other aircraft from 80 Squadron for an armed reconnaissance in the area Einbeck-Hildesheim-Herford to attack targets of opportunity. During their patrol, they attacked and damaged nine locomotives and later in the mission Royds and Pilot Officer Neil James Rankin RAAF attacked a Messerschmitt Bf 109 when they were flying at 6,000 feet and some 10 miles to the east of Celle. During the combat the enemy aircraft exploded and Royds flew into its severed wing. Flying Officer Clement Royds was forced to bail out of his damaged aircraft and was later found dead. He was 21 years old.
Clement Royds is buried at Hanover War Cemetery in Germany, and is commemorated on a memorial window at St Giles’ Church, Haughton in Staffordshire. He is also commemorated on the war memorials at Marlborough College and at Worcester College, Oxford.