East Sussex resident’s achievement as one of the oldest living RAF pilots to be celebrated

Air Vice Marshall Glies LeGood (Chief RAF Chaplain) will be paying Jack Hemmings AFC – MAF co-founder and 102-year-old RAF Veteran – a visit at his home in Horam, Sussex to congratulate him on being one of the oldest living British RAF pilots

AVM Giles Legood said: “What a life of devotion and service to others Jack has given. As wartime RAF pilot and peacetime supporter of MAF, he has helped establish peace and improve the lives on many. My grateful prayer and thanks are offered for his remarkable life.”

A former RAF Squadron Leader, charity co-founder, Air Cadet Flying Officer and aerobatics pilot, Jack is still flying well into his centenary year.

He is passionate about aviation, and believes aircraft should be used to bring peace and hope to those in need – as well as to inspire younger generations.

Jack performed aerobatics in a Slingsby Firefly on his 100th birthday in August 2021 – a surprise gift organised by his wife Kate; following which he remarked: “Aerobatics are such a treat, it’s a wonderful feeling which I thoroughly enjoy.”

His most recent flight, a nostalgic fundraiser at Old Warden airfield in March 2022, saw Jack return to the controls of a 1947 Miles Gemini – the same wooden model he co-piloted to Africa with D-Day Landings RAF veteran Stuart King.

Their pioneering 1948 Gemini survey lasted six months and was the first British mission to assess the humanitarian of needs of isolated communities dotted across Central Africa.

Jack’s 2022 sortie at Old Warden was particularly poignant as it marked what would have been Stuart’s 100th birthday. Jack wanted to raise funds for the

charity they co-founded, as well as honour his lifelong friend who sadly could not be duly celebrated when he died in 2020 owing to coronavirus restrictions.

It was the first time Jack had flown a Gemini in three quarters of a century. Jack became Flight Commander of 353 Sqn in 1946.

Stuart and Jack’s Gemini survey was the first British humanitarian mission across Central Africa, leaving Croydon in January 1948.

To date, Jack has raised more than £40,000 for MAF as a result of his fundraising flight.

He said: “During our survey in 1948, perhaps we could have imagined half a dozen aircraft in Africa. Today, MAF has 120 around the world. Every flight does some good – I think MAF is like the international Good Samaritan of the air. One cannot count the number of people whose lives have been enriched by its services. If he were alive today, I would simply say to him, Stuart – you did good.”

Jack’s flying career began in August 1940, when he volunteered as air crew, aged 19. After his first flights in a Tiger Moth, Jack progressed to multi-engine aircraft, flying Airspeed Oxfords, Lockheed Hudson and Dakota aircraft during WWII.

Jack was stationed in Calcutta with 353 Squadron to protect the Bay of Bengal and coast of Burma until demobilisation in 1946.