The sad death in Dublin this week of 105 year old Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway DFC, AE may seem far removed from the everyday life of people in Clacton. But, his brief link with the town and his place in history bear us, I believe, a brief moment of contemplation.
Hemingway was the last of ‘The Few’, so called by Winston Churchill in his famous speech at the end of the Battle of Britain where he said “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” (one veteran who died a few years ago said when he first heard the phrase he thought it referred to his bar bill!). These were the 3000 men that flew Spitfires and Hurricanes during the summer and early autumn of 1940.
Hemingway was shot down four times during the war, including one time when he ditched off the sea off Clacton and after a prolonged search was saved. A brave Hurricane pilot with several kills against German aircraft associated to him, Hemingway lived the most incredibly long life. It’s quite extraordinary to think that a man who passed this week was actually witnessed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as he stood on the White Cliffs of Dover as his Hurricane engaged against the Messerschmitt Me 109.
Without men like him there is no question that the Nazis would have invaded Britain in the autumn of 1940, and without any question would have succeeded. Had that been the case the people of Clacton today would probably be speaking German.
This is a moment to contemplate not just the last of ‘The Few’ but the passing of a generation who many regard indeed as one of the greatest. There were men and women of substance, values and had the most tremendous sense of humour.
We are fortunate in our town and community to still have a handful of these veterans still left. My advice to all of you is if you get the opportunity to meet them, make sure you treasure them because this won’t last for very much longer. I do hope every school at every level in this constituency and across the rest of the country are teaching young children that the values that we hold so dear today of freedom and democracy were because of these few very brave men. John Hemingway RIP.
