One of Battle of Britain’s last RAF heroes of The Few dies, aged 101
ONE OF the last surviving members of The Few – the pilots who defended the country in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War – has died.
Flight Lieutenant Maurice Mounsdon died on Friday aged 101, family members said.
“He was a great man and will be missed by his nephews and nieces,” nephew Adrian Mounsdon told the Daily Mirror.
Mr Mounsdon’s passing leaves only three remaining members of The Few, the 3,000 airmen who fought off the Luftwaffe in the skies above southern England over three-and-a-half months in 1940.
The surviving trio are Flt Lt William Clark, 100, Wing Commander Paul Farnes, 101, and Flying Officer John Hemingway, 100.
Mr Mounsdon was honoured on his 100th birthday in September last year with a flyover by
‘He was a great man and will be missed by his nephews and nieces.’
the Red Arrows off the coast of the Spanish island of Menorca, where he had lived since the late 1970s since retiring there with his wife Mary, who died in 1993.
The Battle of Britain claimed the lives of 544 RAF pilots and aircrew.#
Mr Mounsdon, with 56 Squadron,
flew his last mission from RAF North Weald in Essex on August 31, 1940.
He once recalled the moment he was hit by a cannon shell from a Messerschmitt 109 over Colchester.
Speaking to the BBC in 2015, he said: ‘I was on fire. There was only one thing to do and that was to get out as fast as possible.
“I was badly burned, but I rolled the aircraft over and came down by parachute from 14,000ft.
“I was conscious all the time. It was the first time I’d used a parachute. I think I was jolly lucky, in a way.”
The Home Guard arrived at the crash site. He told the BBC: “I was picked up by some local people.
“First a young girl arrived, aged 10 or 12, and she had her younger sister with her. I think I said ‘hello’. Then some men came and took me away by motor car.”