SQUADRON LEADER

JIM MALLEY

Pathfinder who flew 127 missions and always felt afraid

JIM MALLEY's service with the RAF during the Second World War extended to a remarkable 127 operations over enemy territory.

One of his first operations was in the Vickers Wellington F for Freddie, which became a national byword after it featured in the wartime film Target for Tonight (1941). His last were in Mosquitoes of 139 squadron in which he flew 53 missions between September 1944 and April 1945, in one case flying on operations on ten successive night. His assignments included more than 30 raids over Berlin, which was the most dreaded target because of the nine-hour flight, the fighter screen and the anti-aircraft fire.

When he resumed his career as a civil servant, Malley achieved distinction a second time when he held the pivotal post in the private office of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland at a moment in the mid-1960s when Terence O'Neill was attempting a rapprochement in difficult circumstances with the Government of the Irish Republic. It fell to Malley to conduct the delicate negotiations which preceded the groundbreaking meeting of the two Prime Ministers, Sean Lemass of the Irish Republic and O'Neill, at Stormont in January 1965.

James Young Malley was the son of a farmer and merchant. he was educated at Dungannon Royal School and entered the Civil Service in Belfast as a clerk. In 1940 he volunteered for the RAF and was commissioned as a navigator-bomb aimer. Remarkably, he was the eldest of three brothers to fly with Bomber Command. All three survived, in a business where the odds against survival were the most unfavourable of any branch of the Services.

Malley received his DFC in 1941 and a Bar two years later after leading a daylight raid on shipping in the heavily fortified harbour at Tobruk. He was promoted to squadron leader shortly afterwards, and returned to England to take charge of navigator training.

A bid to return to active operations failed on medical grounds, but on appeal a sympathetic chief medical officer-and fellow Irishman- Air Commodore O'Malley, pronounced that, while he could not pass him, he would not fail him. Malley then embarked on his Pathfinder exploits with 139 Squadron from Upwood, Near Peterborough. For this he was awarded the DSO.

When he left the RAF in 1945 he was found to have a damaged lung, but it responded to treatment and he rejoined the Belfast Civil Service.

After the resignation of O'Neill, Malley served as Registrar-General of Northern Ireland for nearly ten years, retiring in 1978. He was also actively concerned with the welfare of ex-servicemen and women.

A tall, gangling figure and modest to a fault, Malley retired from Civil Service in 1979. A dedicated outdoorsman, he was to be seen regularly on the moors of Antrim and Fermanagh, his retriever at his heels, shooting grouse and pheasant.

He once confessed to a friend that he never went on an RAF operation without feeling afraid - and doubted the word of those who claimed they did not.

His wife Sheila died 17 years ago. He is survived by their two daughters.

Squadron Leader Jim Malley, DSO, DFC and Bar, wartime Pathfinder and civil servant, was born on July 24, 1918. He died on June 5, 2000 aged 81.

Words taken from the Times Newspaper 4/7/00

last updated 10/7/00