21 Facts About Eugene Esmonde

Eugene Esmonde was born on 1 March 1909 in Thurgoland, Yorkshire, near Barnsley.

Dr John Joseph Eugene Esmonde had married her in 1904, after his first wife died in 1901.

Dr Eugene Esmonde was an Irish Catholic, a former Irish MP, who was in general practice in Yorkshire.

Eugene Esmonde had six natural siblings and six half-siblings - three male, three female - from his father's first marriage to Rose McGuinness.

Eugene Esmonde's half-brothers were: Sir John Esmonde, 14th Baronet, who served in the First World War; Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Esmonde, who was killed in action in the First World War serving with the 26th Tyneside Irish Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers; and Sir Anthony Esmonde, 15th Baronet.

Eugene Esmonde's father, died in 1915, when Esmonde and his siblings were all quite young.

Eugene Esmonde had been serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and succumbed to pneumonia, after being laid low by over-work.

Eugene Esmonde was educated by the Jesuits, first at Wimbledon College in London and then at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare, Ireland.

Eugene Esmonde was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as a pilot officer on probation on 28 December 1928.

Eugene Esmonde was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order on 11 February 1942 for his leadership and actions.

The Swordfish of the squadron ferried some of the crew off the ship before she sank; Eugene Esmonde was mentioned in dispatches for his actions on this occasion.

Eugene Esmonde earned his Victoria Cross when he led his squadron against elements of the German fleet which were making the "Channel Dash" from Brest in an attempt to return to their home bases at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel through the English Channel.

On 12 February 1942 off the coast of England, 32-year-old Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde led a detachment of six Fairey Swordfish in an attack on the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.

Eugene Esmonde's squadron received orders to attack, but no fighter coverage materialised.

Eugene Esmonde waited as long as he felt he could for his escorts to appear, but eventually took off without them.

The subsequent fighting left all of the planes in Eugene Esmonde's squadron damaged, and caused them to become separated from their fighter escort.

Eugene Esmonde led his flight through a screen of the enemy destroyers and other small vessels protecting the battleships.

Eugene Esmonde was still 2,700 metres from his target when he was hit by a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, resulting in his aircraft bursting into flames and crashing into the sea.

Eugene Esmonde flew on, cool and resolute, serenely challenging hopeless odds, to encounter the deadly fire of the Battle-Cruisers and their Escort, which shattered the port wing of his aircraft.

Eugene Esmonde was remembered in Winston Churchill's famous broadcast speech on 13 May 1945, "Five years of War", as having defended Ireland's honour:.

Eugene Esmonde was buried in the Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent on 30 April 1942.