Geoffrey Wellum

Squadron Leader Geoffrey Harris Augustus Wellum DFC (4 August 1921 – 18 July 2018) was a British fighter pilot and author, best known for his participation in the Battle of Britain. Born an only child in Walthamstow, Essex, Wellum was educated at Forest School, Snaresbrook before serving in the RAF. After the war he remained in the RAF until 1961, and later ran a haulage business. In the mid-1980s he retired and moved to Mullion, Cornwall, where he wrote down his wartime memoirs. In 2002 these were published as First Light.

Geoffrey Wellum was born on 4 August 1921, an only child, in Walthamstow, Essex, to Percy and Edith Wellum. His father, who had served at Gallipoli during WW1, ran an off-licence. Wellum was educated at Forest School, Snaresbrook, where he captained the school cricket team.

Aged eighteen, Wellum signed up on a short-service commission with the Royal Air Force in August 1939. The first aircraft he flew was the Tiger Moth at Desford airfield in Leicestershire. Wellum's first solo flight was on 1 September 1939. Two days later Britain declared war on Germany. After successfully completing the course he then went on to fly the North American Harvard at RAF Little Rissington with 6FTS.

In May 1940, before his flight training was complete, Wellum was posted to 92 Squadron, which was a combat squadron flying Spitfires. It was at 92 Squadron that he first encountered a Spitfire, and flew the aircraft for the first time. Later, in First Light, he wrote of the experience: "I experienced an exhilaration that I cannot recall ever having felt before. It was like one of those wonderful dreams, a Peter Pan sort of dream".

Wellum's first commanding officer was Roger Bushell, (later immortalised in The Great Escape). Bushell was shot down and captured almost immediately after Wellum's arrival, and was later executed by the Gestapo in the aftermath of the "Great Escape".

Much later, in an unpublished interview with The Times, Wellum recalled: "After I joined the squadron they went to Dunkirk and by the end of that day we'd lost five people, four of whom I'd met the night before in the officers' mess. I thought, 'Hold on a minute, this is bloody dangerous!’ "

Soon after Dunkirk, 92 Squadron was transferred from RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire to RAF Pembrey in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was there that Wellum began his combat career, "chasing isolated German aircraft all over the south-west".

Wellum saw extensive action during the Battle of Britain. Although just 18, he was not the youngest pilot to fight in the battle, an honour which is currently held by Martyn Aurel King, born 15 October 1921 - ) despite being nicknamed "Boy" by his colleagues. On 9 September 1940, 92 Squadron was posted to RAF Biggin Hill in Kent, in the centre of the fighting. Of the numerous Bf 109 fighters which escorted the German bombers, Wellum wrote "God, is there no end to them? The sun glints on their wings and bellies as they roll like trout in a stream streaking over smooth round pebbles. Trout streams, water meadows, waders, fast-flowing water, the pretty barmaid at the inn. Dear Jesus why this?"