1. Geoffrey Wellum was born on 4 August 1921, an only child, in Walthamstow, Essex, to Percy and Edith Wellum.
22 Facts About Geoffrey Wellum
1. 2.
Geoffrey Wellum was educated at Forest School, Snaresbrook, where he captained the school cricket team.
3.
Aged eighteen, Geoffrey Wellum signed up on a short-service commission with the Royal Air Force in August 1939.
4.
In May 1940, before his flight training was complete, Geoffrey Wellum was posted to 92 Squadron, which was a combat squadron flying Spitfires.
5.
Geoffrey Wellum's first commanding officer was Roger Bushell,.
6.
Geoffrey Wellum claimed a Heinkel He 111 shot down on 11 September, and a quarter share in a Junkers Ju 88 downed on 27 September 1940.
7.
Geoffrey Wellum claimed a Bf 109 shot down on 9 July 1941 over France, and in August 1941, Wellum was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
8.
In July 1942, Geoffrey Wellum was sent to Glasgow, where he participated in Operation Pedestal, a convoy mission to carry supplies for the relief of the besieged garrison at Malta.
9.
Geoffrey Wellum witnessed the arrival at Valletta Harbour of the few remaining ships, including, last of all, the desperately-needed oil tanker SS Ohio, barely afloat, escorted by two destroyers.
10.
On Malta, Geoffrey Wellum was diagnosed with severe sinusitis and battle fatigue, after three years of intensive frontline flying.
11.
Geoffrey Wellum served first as a staff officer in the Second Tactical Air Force in West Germany, where he flew jet aircraft such as the Gloster Meteor, the de Havilland Vampire and the English Electric Canberra.
12.
Geoffrey Wellum was stationed at RAF Gaydon, and in East Anglia.
13.
Geoffrey Wellum left the Royal Air Force in 1960 and took over the family haulage business.
14.
Geoffrey Wellum's birth was registered in West Ham, London, in Q3 1921, the only child of Percy H Wellum and Edith J Freeman, who were married in Windsor Q4 1918.
15.
In Q3 1943 in Westminster Geoffrey Wellum married Dorothy G C Neil, born Q4 1922 in Romford.
16.
Geoffrey Wellum retired from the RAF in 1961 to take up a position with a firm of commodity brokers in the City of London until his retirement to Cornwall where he still lived when 'First Light' was published in 2002.
17.
Geoffrey Wellum joined the local choir, and became deputy harbourmaster.
18.
Geoffrey Wellum was a member of the Royal Air Force Club.
19.
Geoffrey Wellum was awarded the Freedom of the City of London.
20.
The film was first shown by the BBC on 14 September 2010 with Geoffrey Wellum himself narrating and the young Geoffrey Wellum played by Sam Heughan.
21.
Geoffrey Wellum appeared in the documentary "Greatest Events of World War II in colour," being interviewed on his experience at the Battle of Britain.
22.
Geoffrey Wellum has destroyed at least three enemy aircraft and damaged several others.