Air Marshal Sir John Bagot Curtiss, KCB, KBE, FRAeS (6 December 1924 – 14 September 2013) was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served in Bomber Command during the Second World War and was Air Commander of the British forces involved in the Falklands War. He was the first navigator to reach the three-star rank of air marshal.\n', '

Curtiss was born on 6 December 1924 in England. His mother was a New Zealander and his father was Australian. His parents moved to England in 1914 after his father joined the Royal Flying Corps to fight in World War One. He was educated at Radley College, a public all-boys boarding school in Oxfordshire, England, and Wanganui Collegiate School, then an independent all-boys boarding school in Wanganui, New Zealand. In 1942, he attended a university short course at Worcester College, Oxford in preparation for joining the Royal Air Force.\n', '

Curtiss was a member of the Oxford University Air Squadron from 1942 to 1943. He began pilot training in April 1943 and learnt to fly the Tiger Moth. He was commissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 27 October 1944 as a pilot officer on probation (emergency). He was given the service number 187025. Having been passed over during pilot selection, he became a navigator. From 1944 to 1945, he flew with Bomber Command. He joined No. 578 Squadron shortly after the Normandy landings and undertook attacks on retreating German forces. He also flew with No. 158 Squadron during this time.\n', '

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