Bill Foxley was a trainee navigator with RAF Bomber Command during World War II, who survived a 1944 bomber crash in which he was severely burned trying to save a comrade; he lost his fingers, his right eye, and underwent some 40 surgeries. Foxley went on to become a Squadron Leader after the war, and is notable for appearing in the movie Battle Of Britain (1969), as a very rare example of a burn victim appearing on screen.