Colin Hodgkinson

Flight Lieutenant Colin Gerald Shaw Hodgkinson (11 February 1920 – 13 September 1996) was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War. His is credited with 2 aerial victories.

Early life Colin Hodgkinson was born on 11 February 1920 at Glencot House near Wookey Hole in Somerset. His father was the first-class cricketer and airman Gerard Hodgkinson. Considered a "difficult and unruly" child, he was sent to Pangbourne College for a nautical cadetship. In 1938, aged 18, he was accepted into the Fleet Air Arm to undergo pilot training as a midshipman.

Training and accident Hodgkinson carried out training aboard the aircraft carrier in the De Havilland Tiger Moth. He had completed some 20 hours of flying, including solo flights.

On 12 May 1939 he was practising blind flying at RAF Gravesend, with a hood over his head. At an altitude of 800 feet his Tiger Moth struck another aircraft and plummeted to the ground. The crash killed his 28-year-old trainer, Fg Off John Fyrley Spanton, and seriously injured Hodgkinson. He was rushed to hospital, where his right leg was amputated above the knee and his left leg below the knee. He was transferred to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham to recover. During this period he was introduced to the surgeon Archibald McIndoe, who convinced him to have plastic surgery on his burned face, so making him a member of McIndoe's "Guinea Pig Club".

By Christmas 1940, just over a year after his accident, he was walking on artificial limbs to such a standard that he was allowed back into the air. He subsequently joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and went on numerous flights, including as a rear gunner on a bomber. known as Nutkin Thatch, and subsequently worked in public relations. In the 1955 General Election he stood as the Conservative Party candidate for South West Islington, ultimately losing to Labour.

In 1957 he published his autobiography, Best Foot Forward.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1957 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in a pub near to the BBC Television Theatre.

Death Hodgkinson permanently moved to his holiday home in Dordogne, France, a popular place among British immigrants, in 1986. He died there on 13 September 1996, aged 76.