John Beech Austin

John Beech Austin (17 July 1917 - 12 January 2012) was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War. He was one of the RAF’s longest-serving special duties pilots, dropping agents and supplies to Resistance movements in eight countries in occupied Europe.

Early life

Austin was born in Sutton Coldfield, and matriculated from King Edward's School, Birmingham, aged 16 and went to work for the Coventry branch of the Midland Bank as a junior clerk.

Wartime activities

In 1938 he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) in anticipation of war breaking out. He was trained to fly in Tiger Moth biplanes at weekends, was given lectures in theoretical maintenance in weekday evenings, and learned how to navigate using maps on his knees. ‘I only did a small amount of flying, but had quite a lot of lectures.’

Two weeks before war broke out, his unit of Volunteer Reserves was disbanded. Its members were called up, and then were sent home to await instructions. After a few days Austin got fed up waiting and went back to work. He spent the autumn of 1939 working at Midland Bank once again.