Jack Hemmings, the founding father of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and a veteran of the Second World War, died last month on the age of 103.
Hemmings’ life within the air began on the age of 19, when in 1940 he volunteered as an air crewman. During the war Hemmings was stationed in British India where he saw motion against the forces of Imperial Japan and was awarded the Air Force Cross for exemplary gallantry while flying.
“I had the excellence of being the just one to be seriously hit by enemy fire,” he once said.
“I flew in to have a have a look at the port of Taungup to be met by a shower of upward flying incendiaries. There was a loud bang behind my head, and something exploded just because the rear gunner called as much as say, moderately dryly, ‘lot of holes within the wing Jack.'”
After the war Hemmings established MAF with fellow RAF veteran Stuart King. In 1948 they flew a Miles Gemini aircraft around central Africa for six months assessing the needs of the assorted communities within the region. Their survey was cut short when their plane crashed right into a mountainside. Both Hemmings and King were unharmed and MAF eventually grew into one in all the biggest aerial aid organisations on this planet.
In the current day MAF operates 120 aircraft in Africa, with Hemmings once describing the organisation as “the international Good Samaritan of the air” delivering aid and medicine to communities throughout the continent.
Family and aviation figures have paid tribute to Hemmings and his remarkable life.
Hemmings’ wife Kate said of her husband, “‘Lovely Jack’, the phrase that tripped off the tongue of so many individuals who met him for the primary time. Indeed, those were my words after our first encounter.
“His drive was humanitarian, providing hope and relieving human suffering. Oh, my lovely Jack, this world can be very strange without you, but you have left it a greater place for having lavished 103 years of affection into it.”
Donovan Palmer, CEO of MAF UK, commented, “I used to be struck by Jack’s humility and deep devotion to those living in isolation and the probabilities that aircraft present to assist them. Jack’s life can have impacted more people internationally than he’ll ever know.”
The Venerable Dr (Air Vice-Marshal) Giles Legood, Chaplain-in-Chief on the RAF, praised Hemmings’ humanitarian work, “Jack Hemmings has made an immensurable difference to the lives of many across quite a few low-income countries. Indeed, many owe their lives to him and the legacy he has created. His quiet humility, yet determination to make a difference is inspirational.”
Hemmings can be believed to be the oldest man ever to fly a Spitfire, entering into the cockpit of the enduring aircraft just last 12 months. His son-in-law once said that the cockpit of an aircraft was his “home environment”.
