George Powell-Shedden

George Powell-Shedden, known affectionately as Geoff or Fo-Fo by colleagues in the Royal Air Force, was a member of the RAF bobsleigh team at post-war RAF Championships at St. Moritz. He was also a member of the Great Britain II four-man bob that finished 15th, and last, at the 1948 Olympics, made up entirely of RAF men. The son of a former Army lieutenant-colonel, Powell-Shedden, was Christened George Shedden Ffolliott Powell, but changed it by a Deed Poll on 9 August 1938, to incorporate his mother’s maiden name, Shedden, into his surname. He was educated at Wellington College, and then the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1934, where it was hoped he would maintain the family’s long links with the Army, but, less than a year later, in 1935, he transferred to the RAF College at Cranwell, from where he was commissioned into the RAF in December 1936. Powell-Shedden served with a fighter squadron in the Middle-East, before returning to England in June 1940 to take part in the Battle of Britain, where he was a flight–commander with Douglas Bader’s 242 Squadron. In 1941 Powell-Shedden was posted to Malta, where he formed a night flying unit, set up to defend the Mediterranean island. After the war he was a commanding officer in Germany before joining the operational staff in Naples, and finally, between 1957-61 worked for the Air Ministry, before retiring from the Air Force on 20 March 1961, having attained the rank of Group Captain. He later worked as a stockbroker in the City of London for 20 years, and was also a farmer in Buckinghamshire.

Powell-Shedden was honoured with the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in 1941, and Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1945. A keen sportsman at Wellington College, Powell-Shedden played for the rugby XV and was also the school’s heavyweight boxing champion. His son Henry also went to Wellington, and was a member of the rugby XV.