A Tribute to John "Paddy" Hemingway
Britain, the RAF and the world more generally has lost its final human connection with an event in history.
Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway, the last survivor pilot of the Battle of Britain, the last of “the few”, has passed away at the age of 105.
Originally from Dublin, Hemingway joined the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.
Those who fought in the three-and-a-half-month long battle which denied the Luftwaffe air superiority over southern England came to be known as "The Few" after a speech by the then Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," he said of their sacrifices in battle.
During the war, Hemingway was shot down four times.
During dogfights in August 1940, Hemingway was forced to bail out of his Hurricane on two occasions, landing in the sea off the coast of Essex and in marshland.
The wreckage of his Hurricane was recovered in 2019 with the control column and the gun-button still set to "fire".
In July 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross - awarded to RAF personnel for an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty while flying on active operations.
On the way to receive his medal from the King, he was forced to escape from a Blenheim aircraft, which crashed during take-off.
While serving with the 85 Squadron at RAF Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, Hemingway was forced to bail out of his Havoc night fighter at 600ft (183m) due to instrument failure in bad weather.
He broke his hand on the tail section and his parachute failed to open, with the chute catching on the branches of a tree.
He was forced to bail out a fourth time while fighting near Ravenna, Italy, when his Spitfire was hit multiple times. He landed in enemy territory, and made contact with Italian citizens, who helped him back to the Allies.
With the passing of John Hemingway, Britain has lost its final living connection with the pilots of Fighter Command who helped save Britain in 1940. More generally, the dwindling number of Seconds World War veterans is one fewer without the last of “the few”.