Last Surviving Battle of Britain Pilot Dies

John 'Paddy' Hemingway, an Irishman who served in the British RAF during the famous 1940 aerial campaign, died this week at 105.

Mark Phelps

Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 04:53 PM ET

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Edited By:

Kimberly Johnson

John 'Paddy' Hemingway (center) was the last surviving participant of the 1940 Battle of Britain.[Courtesy: British Ministry of Defense]

Key Takeaways:

Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway, the last surviving pilot from the British Royal Air Force's "The Few" who fought in the 1940 Battle of Britain, died at the age of 105 on St. Patrick’s Day.
An Irishman, Hemingway joined the RAF in 1938 and had a distinguished career, including flying during the Dunkirk evacuation and being shot down multiple times, notably twice over England during the Battle of Britain.
He continued to serve later in the war, surviving being shot down a fourth time in Italy in 1945, and his passing has been described by the RAF as "the end of an era."

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Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway, DFC, AE, an Irishman who served in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the 1940 Battle of Britain, died Monday, St. Patrick’s Day, at the age of 105.

Hemingway was the last surviving of “The Few” participants in the epic air campaign. The summer of 1940 saw the outnumbered RAF stymie the Luftwaffe’s attempts to establish air superiority over England in advance of a German invasion that never came.