Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway obituary: The last surviving pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain

Two years later, he was among The Few, the phrase coined by Winston Churchill that came to define the pilots who defended the nation in its finest hour.

In 1940, Mr Hemingway was recorded as destroying a German airliner and the following day he shot down a German Luftwaffe plane but his Hurricane fighter was hit by anti-aircraft fire and he had to make a forced landing.

He then became one of the frontline members of 11 Group’s response to daily attacks by German aircraft, which went on to be known as the Battle of Britain.

His logbook records up to five daily sorties he and the other pilots undertook in defence of the UK.

In August 1940, amid intense dogfights, he was forced to bail out of his Hurricanes twice, landing once in the sea off the Essex coast and the other time in marshland.

On July 1 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and in September that year, he was mentioned in despatches by senior officers.

Mr Hemingway went on to serve as an air fighter controller during D-Day operations, and in 1945 he joined the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces with 324 Wing.

His son Brian said his father had been “in fighting form” at his Dublin care home in recent years.

“He never felt that there was anything special about him. He thought the special ones were the friends who never returned. And now he is back with his squadron,” he said. “It is very sad but his is a life to be both celebrated and mourned.”

Mr Hemingway was stationed in Italy towards the end of the war and commanded 43 Squadron. During this period, he was forced to bail out for a fourth time.

While attacking enemy forces near Ravenna in April 1945, his Spitfire was hit multiple times by anti-aircraft fire.

He parachuted into enemy territory and managed to contact local partisans who helped him return to his squadron.

John Allman Hemingway was born in Dublin and after leaving the city’s St Andrew’s College, joined the RAF on a short service commission in April 1938, 17 months before the outbreak of war.

He remained in the service after the conflict ended, assuming command of No 32 Squadron in Egypt flying Vampire jet fighters. He later served with NATO in Paris and at the Air Ministry and was station commander at RAF Leconfield, near Beverley in Yorkshire’s East Riding.

In 1966 he oversaw the transition of the base – which had been part of Bomber Command before and during the war – into a maintenance unit. He retired as a group captain in 1969.

His wife Bridget predeceased him. They had two sons and a daughter.