LONDON (AFP) – The last surviving British pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain during World War II has died aged 105, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Royal Air Force (RAF) said.
John “Paddy” Hemingway “passed away peacefully”, the RAF said in a statement, describing his death as “the end of an era”.
He was among the pilots known as “The Few” for their role in the seminal 1940 air battle that defended Britain against major attacks.
Britain’s wartime prime minister Winston Churchill coined the term.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” he said of the men’s sacrifice.
