A retired RAF officer and prominent member of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust has spoken of his pride at being sent the clasp his father earned as a member of Bomber Command.

It took years of campaigning before the Government agreed in February 2013 to award a clasp to those who flew with Bomber Command over western Europe during the Second World War.

One of those was Group Captain Patrick Tootal’s father Jack Tootal, who died when the Halifax Bomber he was piloting was shot down by enemy aircraft during a mission in February 1945.

Group Captain Tootal OBE, who is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Kent and secretary of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, has now received the clasp awarded posthumously to his father, who was born in 1918 and enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1940.

Patrick said: “I was my dad’s only son. My mum died in 1988. My eldest son, the ex-Para Stuart, who has seen combat at first hand, was proud of his granddad’s sacrifice and dedicated his second book to him.

“As his only son it was an emotional moment when it arrived in the post. I always wear his medals on my right chest on Remembrance Sunday and this year’s will be very special as they will now include the clasp" Patrick Tootal

“As we approach the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two I am proud that my dad’s supreme sacrifice, and those of his 55,572 colleagues who died, together with the courage of all those who flew in Bomber Command, has been recognised by the issue of a Bomber Command clasp for the 1939/45 Star.

“As his only son it was an emotional moment when it arrived in the post. I always wear his medals on my right chest on Remembrance Sunday and this year’s will be very special as they will now include the clasp.

“I know that his grandchildren who never knew him are also delighted that he has been honoured.”

Jack Tootal was the son of a senior banking official in Lisbon who followed his father into the the profession in 1936 after leaving Sevenoaks School.

While Patrick’s focus is now on The Wing, the Trust’s new visitor and learning experience due to open at the National Memorial to the Few, Capel-le-Ferne, early next year, he is delighted that the ‘Bomber Boys’ have finally been recognised - recognition that Patrick said was long overdue.