Wartime Fleet Air Arm pilot of ‘exceptional flying ability’
LIEUTENANT JOHNNY MYERSCOUGH, who has died aged 100, barely left Lancashire except to fly for the Fleet Air Arm in the Second World War, when he won a DSC for gallantry, skill and inspired leadership.
In January 1945, Myerscough joined 803 Naval Air Squadron, and after a spell in the naval fighter pool at Puttalam, Ceylon, embarked in the escort carrier Empress for Operation Stacey, codename for a naval photographic reconnaissance of Penang, the Kra Isthmus and Northern Sumatra during February and March, for which he earned his DSC.
On June 20, while flying from the escort carrier
Ameer, 804 NAS (in the same air wing) carried out 84 bombing and strafing attacks which were “most encouraging … both in execution and results”. Myerscough personally was credited with destroying seven locomotives. At war’s end, his commanding officer described him as “one of the most outstanding pilots in the Navy, who has shown exceptional flying ability and great wisdom as a leader. He has been a great inspiration to 804 Squadron.”
John Myerscough was born on August 28 1920 at Cottam in Lancashire, leaving Preston Catholic College at 16 to become a junior clerk at Preston Savings Bank. He volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm in 1940; rejected because he did not have an engineering qualification, he studied in his own time before “blagged my way” through the recruitment process.
In June 1941 he was sent for flying training to Florida, where on January 27 1942 he was awarded his wings. He made his first deck landings in a Grumman Martlet fighter on the carrier
Furious on October 1 of that year, and was rated “above average”.
Later in the month 893 Squadron sailed in the carrier Formidable for service in the Mediterranean, where on November 17 Myerscough flew one of two Martlets which strafed the German U-331. It was then torpedoed by Albacore torpedo-bombers of 820 NAS; Myerscough was hit and forced to ditch, but was picked up by the destroyer
Quentin.
On July 11 1943 he was second in a flight of four aircraft of 893 NAS which set a record by landing on Formidable in 1 min 13 sec. The feat elicited a signal from the watching admiral: “Pretty work by that section of aircraft.” Subsequently Myerscough flew throughout the Allied landings in North Africa, Sicily and at Salerno, and was briefly based in Gibraltar.
The squadron also escorted an Arctic convoy to Russia in late 1943, and in August 1944 Myerscough joined 845 Naval Air Squadron in the Indian Ocean, flying the Grumman Hellcat fighter on regular low-level bombing and reconnaissance sorties.
Between 1941 and 1945 Myerscough flew 905 hours in 22 types of aircraft and made more than 200 deck landings, but after this wartime excitement he returned to his civilian career, and for 45 years was manager of what eventually became the TSB in Preston.
The Russian government awarded Myerscough a campaign medal, and reportedly when President Putin discovered that the medal was not of sufficient quality, a replacement was brought to Myerscough’s home in 2016 by an official of the Russian embassy in London.
Johnny Myerscough was a gentleman: industrious, brave, disciplined, polite, honest, reliable, meticulous, loyal, artistic, but often able to demonstrate a wicked sense of humour; he also enjoyed playing golf and watching football.
He married Doreen Knowles in 1948, and latterly nursed her for 20 years until she predeceased him in 2008. He is survived by his two daughters.
He celebrated his centenary during lockdown, the residents and staff of his care home in Lytham St Annes becoming his family for the day.
John Myerscough, born August 28 1920, died March 30 2021