Aidan MacCarthy

Air Commodore Joseph Aidan MacCarthy, (19 March 1913 – 11 October 1995) was an Irish medical doctor of the Royal Air Force and a prisoner of war to the Japanese during the Second World War. He survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945.

Early life

Aidan MacCarthy was born on 19 March 1913, in the town of Castletownbere on the Beara Peninsula, County Cork, Ireland, to Denis Florence MacCarthy and Julia (née Murphy). He was the sixth of ten children; he had four brothers and five sisters. He was raised in an apartment above the family business, MacCarthy's Bar, established by his grandfather, Michael McCarthy. Despite this, he narrowly achieved good enough grades to study medicine at University College Cork, where he continued his sporting activities; he was an accomplished swimmer and played as a blindside flanker for the university rugby team.

RAF career

In 1940, he was posted to France and was evacuated from Dunkirk where he attended wounded Allied soldiers while under fire from German aircraft. In September 1940, he was promoted to flight lieutenant.

The following year he was awarded the George Medal for his part in the rescue of the crew of a crashed and burning Wellington bomber at RAF Honington. The aircraft had crash landed after its undercarriage had failed to lower and it came to rest on the airfield's bomb dump, where it caught fire. Together with Group Captain John Astley Gray, MacCarthy entered the burning wreck and rescued two crewmen, but were unable to save the pilot. In 1948, he was promoted to the substantive rank of squadron leader, having held the rank of acting squadron leader since 1940. MacCarthy continued to serve in the RAF as a senior medical officer at bases overseas in Hong Kong, France, and Germany. Promoted to wing commander then group captain, he was serving as the officer commanding at the RAF hospital at Wegberg in Bavaria, when he collapsed from the effects of a brain tumour in 1969; he underwent an operation to remove the tumour in 1970.

MacCarthy retired from the RAF in 1971 with the rank of air commodore, the highest rank available to non-combatant officers. He continued to work for the RAF part-time as a civilian medical consultant until 1993, when he celebrated his 80th birthday. It houses the ceremonial sword gifted to him by Isao Kusuno, a Japanese officer during the War.