The last of the Few

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Home Guard. I could speak reasonable English so they didn’t shoot me.” The average life expectancy of RAF pilots then was just four weeks. Awarded the DFC for bringing down or disabling a succession of enemy planes, John became a flight controller but missed the excitement of the frontline. After he was posted to Italy as a squadron leader, his Spitfire was hit by German ground fire in April, 1945 and he bailed out again. He was saved by Italian partisans who smuggled him to safety dressed in peasant’s clothing. A local family lent him one of their children to walk him through a German checkpoint. Years later, he recalled he was more frightened for the life of the little girl than his own safety. After the war he continued to serve in the RAF and retired in September 1969 as a group captain.

John’s post-war RAF jobs included spells at the Air Ministry and Nato in Paris.

But after moving back to Ireland following the death of his wife Bridget, the much-loved granddad lost touch with many of his old comrades.

He now lives at a nursing home on the outskirts of Dublin.

John Pulfer, head of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, said: “His nephew wrote asking why his uncle wasn’t on the list of the Few left alive.

“We were not aware he was alive. It’s a great thrill to have another veteran to add to the list. It’s not often you get to say we’ve got one more of the Few.”

I landed in the Pitsea marsh. The Home Guard didn’t shoot JOHN HEMINGWAY ON BEING SHOT DOWN