John Hannah

John Hannah was born in Paisley, Scotland, on 27 November 1921, and served in the Royal Air Force as a wireless operator/air gunner with No. 83 Squadron of Bomber Command, then flying the twin-engined Handley Page Hampden. On the night of 15 September 1940, during a raid against German invasion barges concentrated at Antwerp, the Hampden in which Hannah was crewing (serial P1355) was struck by anti-aircraft fire that set the aircraft ablaze; with the rear gunner and navigator having baled out, the 18-year-old Hannah, who could also have jumped, stayed aboard and fought the flames with two extinguishers and then his bare hands and logbook until the fire was beaten out, allowing the pilot to bring the crippled bomber home. For this act of extreme courage he was awarded the Victoria Cross, gazetted on 1 October 1940, becoming at eighteen the youngest airman ever to receive the decoration. The severe burns he suffered left him in poor health, and after contracting tuberculosis he was discharged from the RAF on a disability pension in 1942. Hannah died of the disease on 7 June 1947 at Markfield Sanatorium near Leicester, aged 25, and is buried in the churchyard of St James the Great at Birstall, Leicestershire; his Victoria Cross is held by the Royal Air Force Museum.