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Terry Spencer (RAF officer)

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Terry Spencer DFC (18 March 1918 – 8 February 2009) was a World War II Royal Air Force fighter pilot and later a war photographer for Life magazine.

During the War, Spencer developed a technique for toppling 'doodlebug' V-1 flying bombs with his wingtips and causing them to crash. The British press nicknamed him 'Tip it in Terry' after he managed to down an unprecedented eight doodlebugs.

He also was credited in the Guinness Book of Records for surviving the lowest parachute jump on record, when his plane was struck by enemy fire just 30 feet above the ocean.

After the War he began working as a photographer for Life magazine, covering wars in the Congo, Vietnam and the Middle East.

In the 1960s, he followed the (at the time largely unknown band) The Beatles, and documented them for several months and shooting more than 5,000 pictures.

He died, aged 90, less than 24 hours after the death of his wife Lesley. The couple had been married for 62 years. They are survived by two daughters. Their only son died in infancy.

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