RIP Spitfire ace who had sneak Palace cig
World War Two hero is dead at age of 99
Allan loved the Spitfire
ONE of Britain’s last surviving Spitfire pilots Allan Scott has died, aged 99, it was announced last night.
The Second World War ace shot down his first enemy plane at the age of 19, and his tally of five “kills” earned him the Distinguished Flying Medal.
When he was awarded his medal at Buckingham Palace, he met the future Queen Elizabeth. Then a 16-year-old princess, she told him off when she caught him sneaking off for a cigarette before the ceremony.
Allan, who lived in Witney, Oxon, had flown in a Spitfire as recently as 2018 as part of the RAF’s centenary celebrations, and was due to do so again for his 100th birthday next July.
He went into the RAF in 1940 and, after training, joined 124 Squadron, who were posted to Biggin Hill,
Kent, that November, just after the Battle of Britain, when Allan saw his first operational flying.
He was then posted to Malta, which was under siege from daily Luftwaffe raids. He joined 603 Squadron, then 1435 Squadron, helping fight off the German assault.
He remained with 1435 Squadron until December 1942, and was credited with destroying at least five enemy aircraft and a further two probables.
Returning to the UK he was posted to 122 Squadron, where he switched from his beloved Spitfire to a long- range Mustang fighter, performing escort duty on heavy-bomber raids in Germany.
After the war he became a civilian test pilot. He crashed a Tiger Moth in 1953, yet remained undaunted and flew more than 80 types of plane in his career. His favourite was always the Spitfire. Air Vice-Marshal Chris Elliot, chief executive of the RAF Benevol ent Fund, yesterday paid tribute to widower Allan as a “remarkable man”. He said: “Allan was indefatigable in his championing of RAF veterans and their sacrifices during the Second World War.
“His love of flying was evident in his determination to return to the cockpit of a Spitfire to mark the 100th birthday of the Royal Air Force.”
Group Captain John Hemingway, 101, who lives in Dublin, is the last surviving British RAF Spitfire pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain. But there are believed to be a small number of ex-RAF Spitfire pilots all over the world as the RAF flew the planes until the late 1940s.
He returned to cockpit of a Spitfire to mark the RAF’s 100th birthday
CHRIS ELLIOT OF THE RAF BENEVOLENT FUND