His father Basil had thought that his only son might become a doctor, but then his son disliked the sight of blood. So when Gp Cpt John (“Paddy”) Hemingway died at the age of 105, it was instead as the last surviving pilot – and the last surviving Dubliner – to have flown in the Battle of Britain, 85 years ago.
He was shot down twice during the battle, and twice subsequently, but then he was the “lucky Irishman”. And for months in 1940 Hemingway’s life – although he would have derided the idea – was one of those 3,000-odd in step with the fate of the world.
In the winter of 1939-40 Plt Off Hemingway, fresh out of Royal Air Force flying school, had been posted to Debden, east of London, with No 85 Squadron. The squadron’s Gloster Gladiator biplanes had been replaced by sleek Hawker Hurricanes. The Hurricane was still less glamorous and slower than the Supermarine Spitfire, but it was the workhorse of the RAF’s fighter war in the early stage of the conflict, and could take on its Luftwaffe equivalent, the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
By the spring of 1940, 85 Squadron was based in France, and Friday 10 May marked the end of the “phoney war” over western Europe, as the Nazis launched their massive attack on France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Hemingway was in the thick of it, downing his first enemy aircraft, a Heinkel He 111 bomber. On the Saturday he helped bring down a Dornier Do 17 bomber, but then had to make a forced landing after the intervention of a German Fieseler Storch spotter plane and intense ground fire. The pilot, with two leg injuries, then joined a group of refugees limping along the long road to Brussels, before rejoining the remains of his squadron.
By 17 May, as the Blitzkrieg accelerated, Hemingway had returned to England. He initially flew Hurricanes with No 253 Squadron, out to Dunkirk as the British and allied evacuation took place into early June. By mid-June he was back with No 85 Squadron, which was now commanded by the charismatic Peter Townsend, the future – and romantically doomed – partner of Princess Margaret.
Between July and October 1940, Hemingway was one of that group of pilots – predominantly British but crucially from around the world – who comprised “the Few”. On 18 August 1940 he was shot down at sea near Clacton and only the timely arrival hours later of a small craft from the Clacton lightship saved his life. Just over a week later, this time over the Kent countryside, he came down again, this time from the bullets of a Messerschmitt.
With the end of the Battle of Britain that October, the focus shifted to the night-time blitz for which the Hurricane was totally unsuited. So early in 1941 the squadron was transferred on to the American Douglas Havoc II, a night fighter variant of the Boston bomber. When Hemingway’s instruments failed on 13 May 1941, he was forced to bail out at low altitude, sustaining various injuries.
By the time of the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, Hemingway was working as an air traffic controller. But as the end of the war approached, early in 1945, he became commander of No 43 Squadron, flying Spitfire IXs. The squadron was by then based in Italy and operated primarily on ground attack. Weeks before the war ended he was shot down again, rescued by partisans, and taken, by a little girl, back to the allied lines. In May 1945, amid the chaos of postwar Europe, Hemingway and his squadron were posted to Austria, where he remained until the end of the year.
Hemingway was born in Dublin, just a few months after the outbreak of the Irish war of independence. He was the oldest child and the only son of Basil Hemingway, a Protestant builder, and his wife, Elizabeth. He had three sisters: Georgina, Thelma and Sylvia. He was educated at St Patrick’s Cathedral choir school – where, it transpired, he was not cut out to be a chorister – and St Andrew’s college, Dublin. There his sporting prowess shone through on the rugby pitch and the running track.
While still a teenager he arrived in London at the end of 1938 for a visit to the RAF and received a four-year short-service commission. As 1939 dawned Hemingway was beginning three months of training in Brough, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Then came the war.
Hemingway did not leave the RAF with the outbreak of peace in 1945, and his first assignment was to Greece. He was a squadron leader by 1948 and by 1953 he was commanding No 32 Squadron, flying de Havilland Vampires – Britain’s second jet fighter – in Egypt. In 1954 he became a wing commander. He was, for a time, station commander at RAF Leconfield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, close to where he had started all those years before. He was a lover of Beethoven.
In 1941, following his exploits with the Douglas Havoc he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and mentioned in dispatches.
Hemingway married Helen (known as Bridget) Prowse in 1948. She had arrived in Britain from South Africa to enlist in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force at the beginning of the war. She predeceased him in 1998. They had a daughter and two sons.
• John “Paddy” Allman Hemingway, fighter pilot, born 17 July 1919; died 17 March 2025
