The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway has died aged 105.
The Royal Air Force said he died peacefully on Monday.
Paddy Hemingway, one of ‘the Few’ and a revered figure in British aviation history, played a key role in defending the United Kingdom against the Nazis in the summer of 1940, when he was just 19.
Pic: RAF
‘The Few’ refers to a speech by Sir Winston Churchill in the House of Commons in August that year as the Battle of Britain reached its peak.
Praising the efforts of RAF fighter pilots, the wartime prime minister said that “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
In an online tribute, the RAF said Hemingway’s squadron shot down 90 enemy aircraft during an 11-day period in May 1940.
In August, he was twice forced to bail out of his Hurricane fighter plane and the following year, he broke his hand in another bailing out – this time at 600 feet (183m) after his plane’s instruments failed in bad weather.
His parachute failed to open properly but luckily caught on the branches of a tree, sparing him further injury.
Near the end of World War Two, while serving in the Mediterranean, he was forced to bail out a fourth time near Ravenna in Italy after his Spitfire was hit multiple times by anti-aircraft fire.
He parachuted into enemy territory and managed to contact Italian partisans, who helped him return to his squadron.
Hemingway never saw his role in the Battle of Britain as anything other than doing the job he was trained to do, the RAF said.
The force described him as always having a “twinkle in his eyes as he recalled the fun times with colleagues in France and London.
“His courage in the face of overwhelming odds demonstrated his sense of duty and the importance of British resilience.”
Hemingway, the RAF said, was a “quiet, composed, thoughtful and mischievous individual” who “embodied the spirit of all those who flew sorties over this green and pleasant land”.
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In July 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and in September of that year, he was Mentioned in Dispatches.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Very sad to hear of the passing of Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, the last known Battle of Britain pilot.
“His courage, and that of all RAF pilots, helped end WWII and secure our freedom. We will never forget their bravery and service.
“Thank you, John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway.”
Defence Secretary John Healey said Hemingway’s generation “understood the importance of freedom and sacrificed so much to achieve it”.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, the Chief of the Air Staff, said the flyer was “an amazing character whose life story embodies all that was and remains great about the Royal Air Force”.
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