Battle of Britain pilot and author
Born: August 4, 1921;
Died: July 19 2018
SQUADRON Leader Geoffrey Wellum, who has died aged 96, was one of the youngest Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots of the Second World War. He was just 18 when he joined the RAF and on account of his youth was known as “Boy” Wellum to his fellow pilots. A year later Wellum shot down his first Heinkel bomber.
His time flying Spitfires was treacherous and he was involved in many dangerous dog-fights. His Spitfires were almost destroyed on three occasions and Wellum had to display his skills as a pilot to get back to base. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1941 and was one of the last survivors of the heroic pilots who Winston Churchill memorably called The Few.
Group Captain Patrick Tootal, secretary of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, said: “I knew Geoffrey well, he was a very fine man and his autobiography is probably the iconic literary account of ordinary men doing extraordinary things which allows us to be here today.”
Geoffrey Harry Augustus Wellum was born in Walthamstow, Essex, where his father managed an off-licence. He attended Forest School, Snaresbrook, where he captained the cricket XI in his last summer.
At 18 he signed up with the RAF on a short service commission and trained mostly on Tiger Moths. He completed his training and was posted in 1940 to fly Spitfires with 92 Squadron. His "hits" throughout the Battle of Britain were remarkable. After the Heinkel he shared various other damages to German aircrafts in the Channel and over France. He avoided being shot down and in 1941 was one of the folk heroes of the era when his squadron was photographed by Cecil Beaton.
In February 1942 he was transferred to 65 Squadron at Debden and promoted to Flight Commander in 1942. In his autobiography, First Light, which he wrote many years later, he captured the drama of those solo sorties to intercept German aeroplanes and modestly talked of the skill, determination and sheer verve that a Spitfire pilot had to encompass.
In a daring mission in 1942, Wellum led eight Spitfires in Operation Pedastal which was launched from the carrier HMS Furious to assist in the relief of the strategically important airport defending Malta.
He had witnessed the death of many of his comrades and Wellum coped with the daily despair by believing he would not be killed. The pressure of the constant danger inevitably reduced Wellum’s youthful enthusiasm and he experienced sharp waves of pain across his forehead.
When he returned from the Malta mission he was examined by a doctor who told him he was “played out mentally and physically”. He was 21 and his war was over. He was then confined to test-flying Typhoons and saw out the war as a pilot instructor. After a spell as an adjutant at RAF Gaydon, a V bomber base, his final posting was to North Luffenham in 1961.
The post war years were not easy for Wellum – he found it difficult to adapt. He worked as a sugar broker in the City but latterly lived in his much loved village of Mullion in Cornwall acting as assistant harbour master and singing in the choir.
In the 1970s he began to write his memories of those epic days in his Spitfire. He put the script in a bottom drawer but a publishing friend showed it to Penguin. A few weeks later, Wellum was in his local when Penguin rang and offered him a most generous deal. “They picked me up off the floor,’’ Wellum recalled ‘‘and poured more scotch into me”. First Flight was published in 2002 and was an instant best seller.
The book was written with characteristic honesty – certainly capturing the daring and romance of the era - but not avoiding the turmoil of the war and the loss of life. He refused to glamorise the Battle of Britain and wrote a history of the war in the air which is now accepted as an historically and authoritative account. His writing was immediate and exciting balanced by Wellum’s ability to capture the horrors of war. His depiction of a dog-fight when he was the target is thrilling, “When I saw him, I felt fear, real stark fear. Not ‘Ooh, this is frightening’, but ‘Oh God, this bloke is going to kill me’. I’ll never know how I got away with it.”
In 2013 the book was filmed by the BBC to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle of Britain with ‘Boy’ Wellum played by Sam Heughan. Wellum had a charming cameo role at the end of the film.
Wellum figured prominently at the many anniversaries of the Battle of Britain - most especially last year in Westminster Abbey at a service attended by Prince Charles. As the aces paraded out of the Abbey at the end of the service the congregation gave them a standing ovation in appreciation. "I was close to tears," Wellum admitted. Afterwards at a reception of all the living fighter pilots, Wellum is seen standing in a photograph straight as a die next to Prince Charles in a prime position.
In 1943 Wellum married Dorothy Grace Neil. That marriage was dissolved in 1975 and in 1981 he moved to Cornwall where he became a much loved and respected member of the community. He is survived by two of his three children.
ALASDAIR STEVEN
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