Alwyne Robert Peirce Shields was born in Umballa, India (now in Lahore, Pakistan) in 1922. His father Wallace John Shields from Stoke Newington in Essex was serving with the RAF, and eventually reached the rank of Group Captain during WW2. His mother was Constance Gladys Shields (nee Peirce), from Mile End in London.

Alwyne was a pupil at Lord Williams’s School before enlisting with the Royal Air Force. He was posted to the far east with 42 Squadron. After many operational sorties in 1943/44 flying Hawker Hurricane IV ground attack aircraft, he took off from Tulihal airfield in the Imphal Valley in north east India at 1635 hrs on 18th July 1944 as part of a flight of 6 planes armed with 500lb. bombs to attack Japanese positions in Myothit, Burma. Flt Lt Shields aircraft was last seen at about 8,000 ft, flying west, but failed to return. Despite a number of searches for the missing pilot and aircraft, they were never found.

Alwyne Robert Peirce Shields is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial at Kranji, Singapore and is remembered in Thame on the Lord Williams’s School Memorial Board.

He is also remembered on the Ford War Memorial, his parents living in Dinton, near Aylesbury. He left £309. 14s. 10d. In his will.