Last Dambuster George 'Johnny' Johnson, who taught at Highfields School, Newark, has died

The last surviving Dambuster, George 'Johnny' Johnson, has died at the age of 101, it has been announced.

Mr Johnson lived at Collingham as a boy and later taught at Highfields School, Newark.

He died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Bristol yesterday (Wednesday) with his family at his side.

As a child, Mr Johnson lived in Langford and then Collingham, where his father was a farm foreman.

In June 1940, he volunteered for the RAF and, having failed selection as a pilot, he took a gunnery course; then later a specialist bomb aimers’ course at RAF Fulbeck.

He would take part in 50 operations with RAF Bomber Command, including, most famously, the Dambusters attack on the Sorpe Dam when he released his Barnes Wallis’ remarkable bouncing bomb with pinpoint accuracy on the tenth attempt, despite the foggy conditions obscuring the target.

While flying back to RAF Scampton, the crew passed over the damaged Mohne Dam and Mr Johnson witnessed first-hand the results of that successful mission as water flooded inland for over 50 miles.

It had been a costly night as eight of the 19 Lancasters failed to return to Scampton and 53 airmen were killed.

For his role in the raid Johnny was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal during an investiture at Buckingham Palace.

He served in the RAF until 1962 and then became a teacher at Highfields.

He also spent Saturday mornings teaching at Rampton Hospital and would later teach skills at Balderton Hospital designed to build up patients’ confidence so they could return to the community.

After his retirement, he and his wife, Gwyn, moved to Torquay where they lived happily together until her death in 2005.

Following an unsuccessful petition signed by 237,000 people to give Johnny a knighthood for his heroics and fundraising activities, he was made an MBE by the Queen in 2017.

Despite living in Bristol, he maintained his local connections.

He returned to Highfields School several times to recount his wartime experience and on his 100th birthday last year, pupils sent him a video of them singing Happy Birthday to him.

He also backed the campaign to build the full-sized sculpture of a Lancaster bomber near Norton Disney, attending the ground-breaking ceremony for the project.