Eric was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, in 1922. His father, Major Stanley Denham, was an army officer with the York and Lancaster Regiment. In 1918 he went missing as he tried to join up in Halifax but was too young and had to return home. As soon as he was 18 he enrolled and Eric describes himself as an “army brat” as the family spent years moving around with him in Portsmouth, Northern Ireland and latterly spending four years in India. The family returned to the UK in 1938. Eric had a younger brother and sister (both deceased) and his sister enrolled as a Voluntary Aid Nurse in the Second World War.



After an army childhood, Eric decided his interest in aircraft and flying led him to join the RAF in 1941. He trained, but didn’t solo, on the Tiger Moth at Brough in East Yorkshire and was then given the opportunity to join 5BFTS in Florida where he joined Course 13. His roommates were John Jordan and (Doug) W Saye. Training first on the Stearman he eventually flew Harvards and graduated from Clewiston on July 29th 1943.



On returning to the UK Eric was sent to Harrogate 7 Personnel Recruitment Centre. Later he was posted to Banff and Inverness and he spent the rest of the war attending training courses and eventually instructing servicemen. During his career he served with the following squadrons, 101, 9, 27, 511 and 241 OCU. He did not see active service in WW2.



Following the war, Eric decided to remain in the RAF and flew Canberras and Vulcan Bombers with 101 Squadron. As reported in the Times on Friday 10th June 1960, he famously piloted the Vulcan that was photographed passing over the crater of Mt Kilimanjaro, Kenya during a Lone Ranger exercise. He relates the many moral dilemmas faced by the Vulcan and Canberra pilots during the Cold War. Eric retired from the RAF in 1973. He worked for British Telecom as a senior purchasing officer until 1985.