The last of the few: John Hemingway’s passing calls us to remember – Yvonne Malan
Key topics
- John Hemingway, last Battle of Britain pilot, dies at age 105
- South Africa's WWII heroes erased from national memory
- Torch Commando veterans opposed apartheid after the war
By Dr Yvonne Malan*
John Hemingway passed away on St Patrick's Day – apt for a proud Irishman. He was 105 and had lived a quiet life in Dublin for many years. The passing of this man who referred to himself as 'nothing special' was noted on the front pages of British newspapers, his death mourned by King Charles and the Prime Minister.
John Hemingway, despite his protestations, was a special person. Out of around 3000 who took to the skies during the Battle of Britain, day after day, he was the last remaining. The last of Churchill's 'Few'. This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and, for the first time, it will be commemorated with no living participants of the battle. Last year marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, likely the last major anniversary to have D-Day veterans in attendance.
The news barely registered in South Africa. It is not surprising. The Second World War was deeply unpopular among National Party supporters and leaders. Some of their most prominent leaders – including BJ Vorster and PW Botha- were interned during the war for their Nazi sympathies. The black liberation movements had a lukewarm response to the war. The current regime seems to view it as some imperial misadventure. This is an utter nonsense. If the Allies had lost the war, the consequences for democracy globally would have been utterly disastrous.
Roughly 250 000 white South African men and 100 000 women volunteered to fight for the Allied cause. Despite being barred from bearing arms and being treated as third class citizens, roughly 80 000 black South Africans also volunteered. These men and women joined for a variety of reasons. Some sought adventure, others did so for financial reasons. But many did so because they believed it was their duty to fight to ensure the future of democracy. They did not do so for personal gain or glory. They did it so others may live.
A number of these South Africans performed acts of extraordinary heroism. Edwin (Ted) Swales, a South African Air Force pilot, was awarded the Victoria Cross – the highest award for gallantry that can be awarded to a member of the UK or Commonwealth forces – for sacrificing his own life to save that of his crew. He was a selfless man of enormous courage.
John Nettleton, a South African who flew for the Royal Air Force, was also awarded the Victoria Cross. He did not survive the war. Job Maseko, whose litany of courageous acts is worthy of a feature film, received the Military Medal. Others, who served with unwavering courage, are less well known. First Officer Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, often flying in horrendously dangerous conditions. She would become the last ATA casualty of the war.
One the most famous South African war heroes was Sailor Malan, one of the highest scoring aces of the war, the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross (with bar) and Distinguished Flying Cross (with bar). He rose to the rank of Group Captain and would command the storied 74 Squadron Royal Air Force. Their motto, 'I Fear No Man', sums up his life perfectly. He would take part in the Battle of Dunkirk, fought in the Battle of Britain – when a pilot's life expectancy was measured in weeks- and would command the Free French on D-Day. He was most definitely the man in arena. He was a favourite of Churchill, who admired his courage and sought out his insights. Sailor's 'Ten Rules for Air Fighting' is used to this day.
And yet few South Africans know any of the names I have mentioned. This partly due to the National Party – many of their leaders interned during the war for their Nazi sympathies – erasing them from history. The new regime has also largely ignored them. In 2017, a street named in honour of Swales was renamed. Few cities officially commemorate Remembrance Sunday. War memorials are vandalised or destroyed. Sailor Malan is good example of this. Celebrated in the United Kingdom, he was only honoured in the country of his birth sixty years after his death, when the City of Cape bestowed civic honours on him.
There is possibly another reason why Second World War veterans were not and have no been honoured and celebrated in South Africa. Something that proves the consistency of their courage, and their tenacity to fight for democracy. In the early 1950s, white war veterans who opposed apartheid formed the Torch Commando. Having fought a war against fascism, they were appalled to see it gain ground in their own country. Secondly, they had served alongside men and women of all races and backgrounds which made them question the government's racist policies. The Torch Commando drew people not normally interested or active in party politics. The war had changed their worldview and deepened their sense of duty.
The president of the Torch Commando was Sailor Malan. Sailor – much like John Hemingway – shunned the limelight. He was a deeply private man who never traded on his war hero status or even discussed the war. But he was also a man with an acute sense of justice, and knew his impeccable war record and leadership credentials could make a difference. So he left his farm where he had found the peace and privacy he had long yearned for to fight a new battle. One of his 'Ten Rules of Air for Fighting' was 'Always turn and face the attack'. Which is exactly what he and thousands of war veterans did.
At their height, the Torch Commando had more than 300 branches across the country and 250 000 members – a significant percentage of the white population at the time. More than half of them were Afrikaans speaking. Their members came from a range of backgrounds. They included the Afrikaans poet Uys Krige, Vic Clapham Jr (whose father had founded the Comrades Marathon), Dolf de a Rey (who had captured Winston Churchill during the Second Anglo-Boer War) and future chief justice Michael Corbett. Another prominent figure was Jimmy Durrant, a war hero and high-ranking officer who was hounded out of the South African Air Force by the apartheid government that still deeply resented those who fought for the Allied cause.
The Torch Commando held rallies across the country, often violently disrupted by NP supporters. These rallies attracted thousands of South Africans of all races. In May 1951, Sailor Malan led them to Cape Town. It was – at that time – one of the largest anti-apartheid rallies in South African history. Sailor did not mince his words. The leaders of the NP, he pointed out, had supported fascism since the start of the Second World War. They represented everything the veterans had fought against. 'Are we going to allow a bunch of politicians to take away our freedom?', he challenged the crowd. Foreign newspapers reported that this rally was a powerful challenge to the NP government and its policies. An Afrikaans paper – choking on their outrage- reported that Sailor was photographed shaking the hands of not one but three black men.
Today, a statue of President Mandela looks down at the spot were war veterans stood against apartheid. Not that the average passerby would know this.
The Torch Commando's popularity terrified the apartheid government. Civil servants, members of the judiciary, and military service members were banned from joining. The movement eventually disbanded. Some members ran for political office, a few joined the armed struggle. Sailor Malan passed away in 1963 at the age of 52. He had remained a vocal opponent of the apartheid government until his dying day. They responded by denying him a military funeral and banning military service members from attending.
The Torch Commando and war heroes were swiftly erased from the history books. And so it has remained. Ironically, the previous and current South African governments loathed and ignored them for many of the same reasons. White veterans who opposed apartheid in their thousands disrupt neat narratives about the past, about heroes and villains, and courage and cowardice.
The death of John Hemingway is the end of an era. And it makes our duty to remember and honour these men and women more important that ever before. They were ordinary men and women, some of them like Sailor – born into humble origins on a farm near Wellington – unlikely heroes. But they made a deliberate choice to fight for democracy. The thousands who joined the ranks of the Torch Commando made that choice not once, but twice.
President John F Kennedy, a veteran of the Second World War, noted, 'A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.' It is high time to honour these men and women in country of their birth. We live in a world where superficial markers of identity and virtual signalling matter more than substance. We need to talk about moral courage, and we need to talk about character. There can be few greater exemplars of this than our own members of the Greatest Generation. The values they stood for, their unwavering courage, the character and resilience they displayed show us the way.
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*Dr Yvonne Malan is the vice president and patron of The Spitfire Society, and the Hornchurch Aerodrome Historical Trust (RAF Hornchurch). She also an ambassador for the National Spitfire Project.