One of the last surviving pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain during World War Two has died aged 101.

Flight Lieutenant Maurice Mounsdon, who died on Friday, December 6, was one of only four remaining members of The Few - a group of 3,000 airmen who defended Britain’s skies for three-and-a-half months.

Mr Mounsdon, who 22 when he fought with 56 Squadron, nearly lost his life when his Hawker Hurricane took off from RAF base in North Weald.

The 22-year-old had already shot down four enemy aircraft in fierce dogfights when he was hit by a cannon shell from a Messerschmitt 109 while over Colchester.

Despite severe burns to his arms and legs, Maurice was able to flip his plane and bail out.

He was rescued by local people and taken to hospital, where he would meet his future wife, Mary.

While convalescing in hospital he underwent pioneering skin grafts performed by Archibald McIndoe, the founder of the patient support group Guinea Pig Club.

The couple, who never had ¬children, moved to the Spanish island of Menorca in the late 70s. Mary died in 1993.

The battle in 1940 against the Nazis would claim the lives of 544 RAF pilots and aircrew, with a pilots’ average life expectancy during this period being just four weeks.

Head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, said Mr Mounsdon's bravery should never be forgotten.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill also recognised the bravery and sacrifice of the pilots during the Battle of Britain.

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," he told MPs.

Churchill's "Few", as RAF crew, who included Polish, Canadian and New Zealand pilots among others, became known, have been celebrated ever since.