Last surviving Battle of Britain pilot John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway remembers moment he was shot down

The last surviving pilot from the Battle of Britain, Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway, recalled the moment he was shot down in 1940 in an interview that has resurfaced following his death aged 105 on Monday, 17 March.

Mr Hemingway was born in Dublin in 1919. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force, becoming one of the young pilots who fought in the Battle of France.

Two years later, he was among the men Winston Churchill called “The Few” to describe Britain’s Battle of Britain pilots.

Paying tribute, Sir Keir Starmer said: “He never considered himself a hero and often referred to himself as the ‘Lucky Irishman’, a man simply doing his job, like so many others of his generation.”