Maurice (Mark) Mounsdon
One of the last of The Few
Born: February 11, 1918; Died: December 6, 2019
FLIGHT Lieutenant Maurice “Mark” Mounsdon, who has died aged 101, was one of the last of what Churchill famously called The Few, the outnumbered RAF pilots who defeated the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain.
He was also the epitome of the Battle of Britain airman: handsome, dashing, with a big moustache twisted upwards at each end by the only cosmetic available to him – aircraft engine grease.
Trained at RAF Kinloss on the Moray Firth, then Pilot Officer Mounsdon, flying Hawkerhurricanes for RAF 56 Squadron, was credited with shooting down or putting out of action six Luftwaffe aircraft. In all, 56 Squadron alone “killed” 59 Nazi warplanes during the Battle of Britain.
At around 0830 hours on Friday August 31, 1940, it was a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 which proved Mounsdon’s downfall, literally, and ended his cockpit career though not his war effort.
His Hurricane and seven others from 56 Squadron scrambled to stop a formation of around 20 enemy DO-17 bombers backed by Messerschmitt fighters over Colchester, Essex.
“I got a good burst at an Me 110 and then had to break away, as I was being hit by enemy fire,” he later reported. “I glanced over my left shoulder to see an Me 109 with yellow spinner as he opened fire close behind and beneath me. He couldn’t miss. Shrapnel hit my left leg, then the instrument panel shattered, and glycol and petrol spilled everywhere. Then up it all went. Suddenly I was sitting in a blowlamp. I undid the Sutton harness, put the aircraft into a roll to starboard, stood up and pushed myself over the side.”
As if that weren’t enough, Mounsdon had another problem. In the rush-up to the Battle of Britain, he had never used a parachute. All they had shown him was how to put it on. “Falling, I could see my trousers were nearly all burned away but the remaining cloth and my tunic edges were still soaked in petrol and burning,” he recalled. “I knew I had plenty of height and so didn’t deploy the parachute straight away in case it caught fire too.” After a freefall, he tugged on the only thing that looked tuggable, his parachute opened and he landed outside the village of High Easter.
What followed could have made a decent Dad’s Army script. Two schoolgirls were the first to see him and were not impressed by the fact that he was naked from his flying jacket down. His trousers had been burnt off.
Local farmers ran up with pitchforks, assuming he was a Nazi, but the schoolgirls said, “no, he sounds English”. He was rushed to a hospital in Black Notley, Essex, where severe burns to his arms and legs put his life in danger.
Maurice Hewlett Mounsdon, always known by his RAF comrades as Mark, was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and enlisted in the RAF in August 1939. On November 2 that year, he was sent for training at RAF Kinloss, an experience, he said later, which sparked a lifelong love of Scotland.
When his flying was over, Mounsdon became an RAF flying instructor. On retirement from the RAF, he worked as an engineer in London.
After retirement, he and his wife Mary moved to Menorca. She died in 1993 but he stayed on. He had no children but is survived by his nephews, nieces and their families.