'Youngest' of the Few honoured

A moving service held at All Saints’ Church, Fawley, Hampshire on Saturday (16 August) commemorated the death, 85 years ago to the day, of the pilot thought to have been the youngest of ‘the Few’.

Pilot Officer Martyn Aurel King (known to his family as Aurel) is the youngest pilot for whom the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust has been able to find a birth certificate. He was born on 15 October 1921, a good two months later than Squadron Leader Geoff Wellum DFC, who is often mistakenly said to have been the youngest.

The service, led by the Rev'd Alison Bennett, was attended by historian and author Dilip Sarkar MBE, honorary vice president of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust.

PO King was killed in action in a combat which saw his Flight Commander and Section Leader, Flight Lieutenant James Nicolson, win the Victoria Cross, becoming the only member of Fighter Command to be so honoured throughout the Second World War.

The service was attended by Sir Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East, and supported by Fawley Royal British Legion and the Royal Air Force. Jim Nicolson, nephew of Flt Lt Nicolson, gave a reading, and Dilip gave the address.

Nicolson’s “signal act of valour” over Southampton saw his Hurricane hit in a surprise attach by Messerschmitt Bf 109s. Wounded in the left foot and with a Perspex splinter through his left eyelid, he prepared to bale out, but as he did so a Bf 109 appeared in front of him.

Nicolson slid back into his seat and fired at the enemy fighter. Despite his cockpit quickly becoming a mass of flames, he continued firing until it became impossible to remain and he baled out, badly burned, at 12,000 feet. While he survived to fly again, he did not see out the war, being reported missing in the Far East in 1945.

Alongside Nicolson in his section of three No 249 Squadron Hurricanes was Aurel King and Squadron Leader Eric King (no relation), who was able to land back at Boscombe Down.

Aurel King’s parachute, though, had been badly damaged by a cannon shell which exploded in his cockpit, causing the canopy to collapse as he deployed it. He died in the arms of a local resident in a Southampton garden.

The full story of the incident is told in Dilip’s Battle of Britain 1940: The Finest Hour's Human Cost and Attack of the Eagles: 13 August - 18 August 1940, volume three of the eight volume official history of the Battle of Britain for the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust published by Pen & Sword books.

Pilot Officer Aurel King

(From left) Jim Nicolson, Dilip Sarkar MBE, Rev'd Alison Bennett and Adrian Saunders.