John “Paddy” Hemingway, an Irishman who served in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the 1940 Battle of Britain, died this week at the age of 105.

The last surviving pilot of the Battle of Britain has died, severing the last living link to the few thousand young men who fought the Nazi air force to a standstill amid fears that Britain might be forced to capitulate during the early months of World War II.

A fighter pilot in a vastly outnumbered Royal Air Force — one of the “few” hailed by Churchill — he took to the skies to help stave off a Nazi land invasion of Britain.