On Thursday 3 July 2025 at 6pm, Dr Helen Doe will consider the life and legacy of Wing Commander Robert Stanford Tuck, DSO, DFC and Two Bars, AFC. This lecture will be hosted virtually via Crowdcast.

The first full reappraisal of one of Britain’s great fighter aces, this talk examines the truth behind Tuck’s 1956 biography to reveal the real Stanford Tuck. In January 1942 Bob Tuck was the top-scoring British fighter ace with an official score of 29 enemy aircraft destroyed. With film-star looks he was the glamorous role model for the RAF publicity machine and an eager press and public wanting wartime heroes. It came to an abrupt halt in January 1942 when he was captured and taken prisoner in the notorious Stalag Luft III. Here he shared a room with Roger Bushell and was involved in the preparations for the Great Escape. On the Long March he and another pilot eventually escaped and ended up with the advancing Russian Army.

Post war he and Adolph Galland, the Luftwaffe ace, became good friends and they were both key advisors to the 1969 film Battle of Britain.

Dr Helen Doe specialises in both maritime and RAF history. She has published extensively and among her books are The First Atlantic Liner and SS Great Britain: Brunel’s Ship, her Voyages, Passengers and Crew. Helen’s latest maritime book is One Crew, the book to mark the bicentenary of the RNLI.  She has published two highly regarded RAF biographies, Fighter Pilot, the biography of WW2 ace Bob Doe and recently Stanford Tuck: Hero of the Battle of Britain.

Helen gained her PhD at the University of Exeter where she taught for some years. She a government advisor to the National Historic Ships and Chair of the British Commission for Maritime History. She has appeared regularly on television and radio.

Virtual Lecture: Wing Commander Robert Stanford Tuck: Hero of the Battle of Britain. The Life of the Great Fighter Ace