He served as a pilot and commander, and was the first officer of the RAF to be awarded the DSO three times during the war.
In he was asked to participate in the making of the Crown film Target for To-night. Attention from the film made him a public figure in England. Later that year he led the squadron of Whitley bombers that carried paratroopers to their drop for the Bruneval raid.
Through most of he commanded Squadron , the secretive unit that flew SOE agents in and out of occupied France. He was a very active commanding officer, and flew many of the missions himself.
In late Pickard was made the commander of a new unit, Wing , a ground attack formation whose three squadrons had converted to the Mosquito. On 18 February Pickard led a group of Mosquitos on the Amiens prison raid to destroy the walls of a Gestapo prison and free the prisoners inside. He was killed in this operation. Pickard was one of the RAF's most highly regarded bomber pilots of the war, ranking among the likes of Guy Gibson and Leonard Cheshire.
He was the youngest of five children, with an older brother and three older sisters. His father was Percy Charles Pickard, a Yorkshireman who moved to London and started a catering company. Having the same name as his father and being the youngest of five in the family, he was affectionately referred to as 'Boy', and the family nickname persisted, even as he grew to be 6' 4". His oldest sister, Helena Pickard , became an actress; she married the actor Cedric Hardwicke. Pickard was sent to Framlingham College.
