Born in Dublin, Ireland, Hemingway joined the Royal Air Force in 1938, and in 1939 was appointed as a Pilot Officer, flying fighters. Just in time for World War II to ramp up. On May 10 he shot down his first plane, a Heinkel He 111, a German medium bomber. The next day, he downed a Dornier Do 17, a German light bomber. But his Hurricane was damaged too, and he was forced to land in Maastricht, Netherlands. He was picked up, returned to England, and back in the skies a few days later, and flew support for the Battle of Dunkirk. Then came the grueling July to October 1940 Battle of Britain; he was shot down three more times, and always walked away. He was promoted to Flying Officer.
In 1940, his squadron, the 85th, converted to Havoc II night fighters. His instruments failed in bad weather and he had to bail out. His hand hit the tail, breaking bones, but he was able to pull his ripcord with his other hand. His parachute failed. His fall was broken by a tree and a debris pile, and survived with two injured ankles. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and needed several months to recover. On August 20, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech to the House of Commons, describing the Battle of Britain, which saved Britain from invasion by the Nazis. The speech included the line, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” He was describing the pilots, who took on the name, “The Few”; not quite 3,000 pilots were so designated, and those men were honored with that title from then on.
But they had a war to fight. By the first day of 1944 Hemingway was back at it, promoted to Squadron Leader, serving as an air traffic controller during the Invasion of Normandy. During the battle, The Few shot down at least 2,300 German planes; 238 RAF pilots earned an “ace” — 5 or more enemy planes shot down — during the battle. Hemingway, working in a control tower, wasn’t one of them, but he served despite lingering injuries. He went back to flying later, promoted again to command the No 43 Squadron, flying Spitfires — and was shot down a fourth time, near Ferrara, Italy. He was saved by a young girl who hid him from German troops.
When the war ended, Hemingway stayed in the RAF as a career, and was promoted to Wing Commander. He later served as Station Commander at RAF Leconfield, and Staff Officer at NATO in France. On January 1, 1969, he was promoted to Group Captain. He retired that fall, and eventually moved to Canada. But Ireland called and he went back to Dublin in 2011. In 2023 he visited his school, St. Andrews College in Dublin, where he was greeted by the Head Boy and the Head Girl. “Are there girls here now?” he asked. Yes — for 50 years! He left the school when he was 17; 36 of his classmates were killed in the war, and there were only 120 students at the school when he left, all male. How did he survive being shot down four times? “Irish luck,” he told them. Three years earlier, William Clark had died. With the death of Clark, a Battle of Britain navigator/radar operator, Hemingway was the last of The Few. “I am only the last of The Few because I haven’t died,” he cracked.
In early 2024, Hemingway’s family put out a call asking for information about the young girl who saved him in Italy. He had apparently outlived her, and her daughter came in her stead. On his 105th birthday on July 17, 2024, Hemingway was honored at the British Embassy in Dublin. Artist Dan Llywelyn Hall unveiled five portraits depicting the last five of The Few; only Hemingway lived to see them. Group Captain John Allman Paddy Hemingway died in a nursing home in Dublin on March 17 — St. Patrick’s Day — at 105. The Royal Air Force called it “the end of an era.”