21 Facts About Richard Hillary

Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary was an Anglo-Australian Royal Air Force fighter pilot during the Second World War.

Richard Hillary wrote the book The Last Enemy about his experiences during the Battle of Britain.

Richard Hillary lived with his parents until the age of seven; from then until he was eighteen he saw them only during the summer holidays.

Richard Hillary rowed in the successful Trinity College VIII of 1938.

Richard Hillary joined the Oxford University Air Squadron and the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939.

Richard Hillary was a descendant of Sir William Richard Hillary, founder of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Richard Hillary was called up to the Royal Air Force in October 1939 and in July 1940, having completed his training, he was posted to B Flight, No 603 Squadron RAF, located at RAF Montrose, flying Spitfires.

In one week of combat Richard Hillary personally claimed five Bf 109s shot down, claimed two more probably destroyed and one damaged.

Richard Hillary wrote about his first experience in a Supermarine Spitfire in The Last Enemy:.

Unable to bail out of the flaming aircraft immediately, Richard Hillary sustained extensive burns to his face and hands.

Richard Hillary was taken for medical treatment to the Royal Masonic Hospital, Hammersmith, London; and afterwards, under the direction of the surgeon Archibald McIndoe, to the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, in Sussex.

Richard Hillary endured three months of repeated surgery in an attempt to repair the damage to his hands and face, and went on to become one of the best known members of McIndoe's "Guinea Pig Club".

Richard Hillary wrote an account of his experiences, published in 1942 under the title Falling Through Space in the United States, and as The Last Enemy in Great Britain.

Richard Hillary took a scalpel and tapped lightly on something white showing through the red granulating knuckle of my right forefinger.

Richard Hillary looked at the badly contracted eyelids and the rapidly forming keloids, and pursed his lips.

In 1941, Richard Hillary persuaded the British authorities to send him to America to rally support for Britain's war effort.

Richard Hillary managed to bluff his way back into a flying position even though, as was noted in the officers' mess, he could barely handle a knife and fork.

Richard Hillary returned to service with No 54 Operational Training Unit at RAF Charterhall after recovering from his injuries, for a conversion course to pilot night fighter aircraft.

Richard Hillary's ashes were scattered from a Douglas Boston over the English Channel by his former 603 Squadron commanding officer, Wing Commander George Denholm.

In 2001 a memorial to Richard Hillary was unveiled at the site of the former RAF Charterhall near Greenlaw, Berwickshire.

Richard Hillary is today remembered in his alma mater of Trinity College, Oxford, by an annual literature prize, a portrait outside the college library, and an annual lecture in his honour.