Former pilot John Beeching dies aged 101
RAF Bomber Command veteran Flight Lieutenant John Beeching, who served in the latter stages of the Second World War, has died.
101-year-old Beeching died in Nelson on Wednesday, the vice-president of New Zealand Bomber Command Association Lindsay Mouat said.
The veteran, who lived in New Zealand after the war had served as a Mosquito pilot with the UK’s Royal Air Force 169 Squadron.
“John’s service with Bomber Command represents an important link to the dwindling number of veterans who flew with the RAF during the war,” Mouat said.
Born in London, he chose to emigrate to New Zealand in 1953 after the war, and after time in Christchurch and Wellington he settled in Nelson for 55 years.
A Londoner, he grew up in the East End and was familiar with the damage inflicted on the city in the Blitz.
As a teen, Beeching volunteered with the RAF and at the time Bomber Command losses were climbing fast and the RAF needed more pilots – not only from Britain but the Empire (as it was), including New Zealand.
He qualified as a pilot in July 1943 after training in Canada where he later returned and spent seven years in Edmonton before he emigrated to New Zealand and moved to in Nelson, in 1960.
He flew his first operations at the beginning of 1945 in the famed De Havilland Mosquito, the Mossie or “Wooden Wonder,’ on night intruder operations against German night fighters over Europe.
The “remarkably fast Mosquitos” took off later than the heavy bombers, such as Lancasters, and were tasked with reaching the target ahead of the main bomber stream and keeping it clear of enemy fighters. They often flew at low levels, Mouat said.
Beeching had previously told Stuff he could still vividly recall the feeling of flying Mosquito planes on numerous bombing missions over Germany that lasted up to six hours at at time.
In 2012, Beeching travelled back to London with his wife Wendy for the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial by Queen Elizabeth II.
On Beeching’s 100th birthday he retired from his work at the Cawthron Institute. He joined the country’s largest science organisation after retirement age and had been working part-time fixing everything from microscopes to test tubes.
On his 101st birthday Beeching started a World War II Merlin engine at a retirement village in Nelson. It was poignant for the man whose Mosquito bomber aircraft were powered by two Merlin engines.
In October 2024, The Nelson Mail asked about the secrets to a long life and Beeching gave an autobiographical response.
“You can drink gallons of beer, cover all your food with great big blizzards of salt, smoke till you’re 40 and you’ll live forever,” he laughed.
The New Zealand Bomber Command Association believes there are just two remaining veterans of RAF Bomber Command who flew operations during WWII left in New Zealand.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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