Born: July 17th, 1919
Died: March 17th, 2025
John Hemingway, who has died aged 105 in a nursing home in Foxrock, Co Dublin, was the last of those whom Winston Churchill memorably called the “Few”.
Hemingway was one of the 3,500 or so Battle of Britain pilots Churchill had in mind when he made his noted remark in 1940: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Donald Trump’s tariffs: The distinct dangers for Ireland, pharma in the spotlight and what else to expect
How well did the media do its job during Covid lockdowns?
The 80/20 rule of dating is nonsense. So why do so many people believe it?
Michael Lowry gave two fingers to the public. Their message back to the Government is equally concise
Born to a middle-class Church of Ireland family in South Dublin in 1919, Hemingway attended St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir School, describing himself as a “very unsuccessful choirboy”. Later, he attended St Andrew’s College, then located on Merrion Square. His decision to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) was prompted by his father’s insistence that he choose a career upon leaving school.
He went to London to sit examinations, followed by medical and physical tests, and was accepted into the RAF and offered a short service commission in March 1938.
A year later, Hemingway had completed his initial flight training at Brough, east Yorkshire, and was appointed to the rank of acting pilot officer. After a period at the Flight Training School at RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire, Hemingway passed out successfully as a fighter pilot and was soon posted to No. 85 Squadron at RAF Debden in Essex, south-east England.
This squadron was one of the first to be equipped with the Hawker Hurricane, a monoplane fighter interceptor which, together with the Supermarine Spitfire, was considered in the 1930s to be the cutting edge in military aviation – what we would today call a “next generation” fighter plane.
On the first day of the Battle of Britain, on May 10th, 1940, Hemingway claimed his first aerial victory – a Heinkel III bomber, which had been flying east. After he had opened fire, Hemingway questioned whether “he was doing the right thing – were we now in a shooting war?”
[ Battle of Britain pilot at 100: ‘The only advice I can give to people is be Irish’ ]
The following day, Hemingway was brought down by a German anti-aircraft battery near enemy lines in Belgium. He managed to evade capture, and joining throngs of fleeing Belgian civilian refugees and retreating British troops, he made his way back to his squadron near Lille, France, five days later.
In July 1940, Hemingway began serving with No. 85 Squadron under the command of Squadron Leader Peter Townsend, later noted for his relationship with Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II.
Hemingway and his fellow airmen were thrust into the first phase of the Battle of Britain; what their adversaries named kanalkampf, or “channel battle”, and the defence of British shipping from Luftwaffe attack.
On August 18th 1940, a date remembered in RAF circles as ‘The Hardest Day’, Hemingway was shot down over the North Sea, and bailed out off Clacton-on-Sea. He survived two hours in the water before being rescued by a lightship crew. When he returned to RAF Debden, he learned of the loss of his flight commander and friend, Flight Lieutenant Richard “Dickie” Lee, who was last seen flying out to sea in pursuit of German escort fighters.
Eight days later Hemingway was brought down over the Thames Estuary while attacking a formation of JU 88 bombers on August 26. Bailing out over Pitsea Marshes, he left behind the buried wreckage of Hurricane P3966, which would be excavated from the marshes in 2019. This aircraft is now being restored to an airworthy condition from the recovered parts by a company in Suffolk.
Hemingway went on to serve as an air controller during the 1944 D-Day landings and Operation Overlord, directing RAF fighter traffic over the Normandy beaches throughout the Allied invasion. However, he was always anxious to get back in the air and was eventually posted to command No. 43 Squadron in Italy later in 1944.
In 1945, he was brought down behind enemy lines near Rimini, northern Italy, and barely managed to evade capture by the occupying German troops. With the help of partisans, Hemingway was concealed and, disguised as an Italian farm labourer, was later escorted by a little girl, the daughter of a partisan leader, to the safety of Allied lines.
He finished out the war in northern Italy and went on to serve in the postwar RAF for almost 25 years, serving as a station commander in the UK, a liaison officer in the Middle East and a staff officer seconded to Nato headquarters in Brussels, retiring at the rank of group captain in 1969.
He went to live with his daughter in Canada for the next 40 years, returning to Ireland at the age of 90 in 2011.
Military historian Joseph Quinn, who interviewed him several times, said: “His death, at the remarkable age of 105, marks the severing of our last living connection to the men and women who safeguarded the United Kingdom and the wider Allied cause during a time of great darkness, peril and uncertainty.
“He was also the last surviving reminder that Britain did not, in fact, stand alone in the face of the evils of Nazism and was assisted by volunteers from many nations around the world, including neutral southern Ireland, which was represented in the Battle of Britain by 10 RAF fighter pilots.
“John’s passing will be a profound moment for introspection within the United Kingdom, especially at a time when the UK and Europe again faces the prospect of aggression and armed confrontation on the Continent within our own lifetime.”
