Henry Lafont

Who is Henry Lafont?

Henry Lafont was a French aviator. He was the last surviving French veteran of the Battle of Britain.

Lafont was born in Cahors, France on 10 August 1920. Attracted by flying, he obtained his pilot's licence and in November 1938 entered the Armée de l'Air flying school at Istres. When the Armistice was signed on 22 June 1940, Lafont was just finishing a course at the Fighter School at La Sénia airfield near Oran, Algeria. He refused to accept the Armistice with Germany. With five other servicemen, including René Mouchotte and Charles Guérin, he escaped from Oran to join the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres.

They escaped by flying a twin-engine Caudron Goéland transport aircraft, surviving a takeoff with sabotaged propellors locked in coarse pitch, to Gibraltar, navigating with the aid of a school atlas. The group joined the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres in June 1940. They arrived in Britain in mid-July.

Lafont was one of eleven French pilots posted to RAF St. Athan in late July. He moved to No. 1 School of Army Co-operation at Old Sarum on 29 July and then went to Odiham on 10 August where he flew 15 hours on Tiger Moths and Hectors.