Did you know the last of “The Few” passed away recently?

“The Few” is the appellation for the airmen of the Royal Air Force (RAF) who fought in the Battle of Britain, defending the beleaguered island nation against the Third Reich’s Luftwaffe between July and October 1940. The last of The Few, Group Captain John Allman Hemingway, passed away recently on March 17, 2025 at the age of 105.
 
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Hemingway joined the RAF in early 1938, earning the nickname “Paddy” for being Irish. He flew Hurricane fighters in France, taking out two German planes in two days and making a forced landing with his damage aircraft on the second occasion. He returned to Britain and flew cover for the Dunkirk Evacuation. (The “Miracle of Dunkirk”)

He had to bail out twice during the Battle of Britain, landing once in the sea and once in a marsh in a nine-day period; the wreckage from his second landing was recovered in 2019.
 
Mr. Hemingway’s squadron converted to U.S.-made Havoc II night fighters in 1941. In May, he had to bail out of his plane after his instruments failed in bad weather. He hit his hand and broke two fingers on the plane’s tail as he jumped out. His parachute failed to open fully, and he only survived because a tree broke his fall, and he landed on a midden. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, but the light bomber he was travelling on to receive the award in London crashed on takeoff.

Mr. Hemingway served as an air traffic controller during the Normandy landings, and bailed for the fourth and last time in 1945, when his Spitfire (Supermarine Spitfire) was shot down in Italy. He managed to avoid capture thanks to the aid of local partisans, who helped him get back to his unit. In June 2024, less than a year before his death, Mr. Hemingway met the daughter of the young girl who saved him from the Germans in Italy.
 
After the war, Mr. Hemingway continued to serve in the Middle East, as a station commander in Britain, as a staff officer in NATO, and finally in the Air Ministry.
 
Join us on our Britain at War Tour to learn more about the heroic fight of pilots such as Mr. Hemingway.