Lieutenant Johnny Myerscough, who has died aged 100, barely left Lancashire except to fly for the Fleet Air Arm.
In January 1945, Myerscough joined 803 Naval Air Squadron, and after a short spell in the naval fighter pool at Puttalam, Ceylon embarked in the escort carrier Empress for Operation Stacey, codename for a naval photographic reconnaissance of Penang, the Kra Isthmus and Northern Sumatra in February and March 1945, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry, skill and inspired leadership.
Subsequently on June 20, 1945, while flying from the escort carrier Ameer, 804 NAS carried out 84 bombing and strafing attacks which were “most encouraging … both in execution and results”, and Myerscough personally was credited with destroying seven locomotives. At war’s end, Myerscough’s commanding officer described him as “one of the most outstanding pilots in the Navy who has shown exceptional flying ability and great wisdom as a leader. He has been a great inspiration to 804 Squadron.”
John Myerscough was born in Cottam, Lancashire, leaving Preston Catholic College at 16 to become a junior clerk at Preston Savings Bank. He volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm in 1940 but, rejected because he did not have an engineering qualification, he studied in his own time before “blagged his way” through the recruitment process.
In June 1941 he was sent to Florida for flying training where on January 27, 1942, he was awarded his wings, and he made his first deck landings in a Grumman Martlet fighter on the carrier Furious on October 1, 1942, when he was rated ‘above average’.
893 squadron sailed in the carrier Formidable in October 1942 for service in the Mediterranean, where on November 17, Myerscough flew one of two Martlets which strafed the German U-331 . U-331 was then torpedoed by Albacore torpedo-bombers of 820 NAS, while Myerscough was hit and forced to ditch but was picked up by the destroyer Quentin.
On July 11, 1943, Myerscough was second in a flight of four aircraft of 893 NAS which set a record by landing on Formidable in 1 min 13 seconds. (The previous record had been held by 5 aircraft of 803 NAS 5 five aircraft at 29 second intervals.) The feat elicited a signal from the watching admiral “Pretty work by that section of aircraft”. Subsequently Myerscough flew throughout the Allied landings in North Africa, Sicily and at Salerno, and was briefly based in Gibraltar.
The squadron also escorted an Arctic convoy to Russia in late 1943, and in August 1944 Myerscough joined 845 Naval Air Squadron in the Indian Ocean, flying the Grumman Hellcat fighter on regular low-level bombing and reconnaissance sorties.
In four years, 1941-45, Myerscough flew 905 hours, in 22 types of aircraft and made more than 200 deck landings, but after this wartime excitement he returned to his prewar career and for forty-five years was manager of the TSB Bank in Preston.
The Russian government awarded Myerscough a campaign medal, and when allegedly Premier Putin discovered that the medal was not of sufficient quality, a replacement was brought to home in 2016 by an official of the Russian embassy in London.
Myerscough was a gentleman: industrious, brave, disciplined, polite, honest, reliable, meticulous, loyal, artistic, but often able to demonstrate a wicked sense of humour, and enjoyed playing golf and watching football. He married Doreen Knowles in 1948, and nursed her for twenty years until she predeceased him in 2008. He is survived by two sisters, included Alice who is 103, and his two daughters.
He celebrated his centenary during lockdown with residents and staff of his care home In Lytham St Annes becoming his family for the day.
John Myerscough, born August 28, 1920, died March 30, 2021.