Prime Minister meets some of 'The Few'

Prime Minister David Cameron met heroes of the Battle of Britain at the start of a week of commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the RAF's historic struggle with Germany's Luftwaffe.

The event in central London was Mr Cameron’s first public engagement since the death of his father Ian last week. He told the veterans and their wives how his father, who was born with stunted legs, had always been proud of meeting flying ace Douglas Bader, who lost his legs in an air accident and encouraged him to make the most of his life despite his disability.

Mr Cameron welcomed a full-size replica of a Mark 1 Spitfire fighter plane of the type which took part in the Battle, which will be outside the Ministry of Defence building on Whitehall throughout the week.

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He met four of the people wartime PM Sir Winston Churchill called “the few”: Spitfire pilots Geoffrey Wellum, 89, from Cornwall, and William Walker, 97, from west London; Hurricane pilot Bob Foster, 90, from St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex; and Blenheim gunner Owen Burns, 94, from west London.