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Irishman John Hemingway is now the last of the “Few” WWIIs who fought in the Battle of Britain still alive.
It follows the death in a Yorkshire care home of Flight Lt. Terry Clark (101) on the eve of the 75th anniversary of Victory Day in Europe (VE) on Thursday.
The “Few” were named for the wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, referring to the 3,000 Royal Air Force (RAF) men who rejected the German Luftwaffe during the summer and fall of 1940 and avoided a Nazi invasion of Great Britain.
Churchill paid tribute to them in his much-quoted speech in August 1940 in which he declared: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed to so few.”
RAF Benevolent Fund Controller Vice Air Marshal Chris Elliot confirmed to the BBC that Mr. Hemingway is now the last surviving member of The Few.
Mr. Hem ingway (100) lives in a nursing home in Foxrock, Co Dublin. Yesterday she was informed of the death of Mr. Clark and that he is now the last survivor of the Few. He expressed his condolences to Mr. Clark’s family.
Born in St Kevin’s Gardens in Dartry on July 17, 1919, Mr. Hemingway attended the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir School, where he was “a failed showgirl.” Later he attended St Andrew’s College, then located on St Stephen’s Green.
After being accepted into the RAF, he began training in Brough, Yorkshire, in January 1939. After completing flight training school, Pilot Officer Mr. Hemingway was dispatched to No. 85 Squadron in Debden, flying hurricanes.
Hemingway was on the front line during the Battle of Britain, a campaign that decimated Squad No. 85. He was shot down twice in August 1940. The first instance was while intercepting Junkers Ju 88s about 20 miles away. Clacton-on-Sea in Essex. He was in the water for almost two hours before a rowboat rescued him.
Above Eastchurch in Kent during an attack on Dornier bombers, his plane was damaged by tail gunners and jumped over the Pitsea marshes. His hurricane P3966 plummeted from 5,000 m and was buried in the soft, swampy ground of the marshes.
By September 1940, Squadron No. 85 had lost 11 pilots in action and had to be retired. Mr. Hemingway received the Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1941, but the battle had taken its toll on the young pilot.
Its commander, Peter Townsend, famous for his later romance with Princess Margaret of Great Britain, and described by Hemingway as a “first-class leader in a combat squad”, was also good at recognizing signs of battle fatigue. Mr. Hemingway rested, with light duties, for two years.
He served as a flight controller during Operation Overlord, the allied invasion of Normandy, in 1944. He was later restored to active duties as a Spitfire fighter pilot and fought in the 1944-45 campaign in northern Italy.
After the war, he served as a personnel officer in the Middle East, spent two years at the Air Ministry in London, and then as a senior officer at NATO headquarters in France. He then returned to England as station commander at RAF Leconfield in Yorkshire. He retired from the RAF in 1969.
He was one of 36 Irish pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, including Wing Commander Brendan ‘Paddy’ Finucane, who was one of the RAF’s most successful fighter aces in the war, and Victor Beamish, a Kindred. of the brewing industry. Both were killed in the war.
Last year he gave an interview to The Irish Times on the occasion of his 100th birthday.
He told military historian Joseph Quinn, “I can’t say don’t drink. I can’t say don’t be fooled by people. I can’t say don’t fly planes. I can’t say don’t shoot and shoot me: I’ve done everything and I’m Irish The only advice I can give people is to be Irish!
Mr. Hemingway’s wife, Bridget, died in 1998. The couple had three children.
She lives a quiet life in South Dublin, having returned to Ireland in 2011 after several years in Canada with her daughter. His decision to return was “one of my absolute correct decisions. He was always coming back. “
Her son Brian considers his father “the lucky Irishman.” He currently lives in Dublin in a nursing home community. Speaking to The Irish Times, Brian felt that at the age of 100, his father’s luck had not yet run out. “He feels lucky because he is well cared for in his nursing home, he is loved and not forgotten,” he said. “On a personal level and at the level of the Royal Air Force that gives it some comfort. He is very aware of the thousands of other pilots who are no longer with us. “
Regarding his father’s Irish identity as the last survivor of the Battle of Britain, Brian added: “If people are proud to be British because of the role they played in the Battle for Britain, then they are proud.”
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