The Battle of Britain was fought between early July and the end of October 1940.

The RAF fighter pilots, immortalised by Winston Churchill at the battle's end as The Few, took on the might of the German air force as it targeted first our ports, then airfields, and finally cities. 

Among those pilots was the legendary Douglas Bader who, despite losing both legs following a crash in 1931 which led to an enforced retirement, rejoined the RAF on the outbreak of war in 1939 and became a distinguished ace. 

Having bailed out of his damaged aircraft in August 1941, Douglas became a prisoner of war and made several attempts to escape despite his disability and prosthetic legs.

After the war, he took up golf, and it's said that, on realising the best shots he hit were from uphill lies, he commissioned a special pair of prosthetics, with the left leg slightly longer than the right. His doctor protested that they might cause curvature of the spine, but Douglas said it was worth the risk.

Douglas Bader became a low handicap player, and was a popular visitor to courses at home and abroad.

During a European tour as a famous pilot rather than golfer, he arrived in Stockholm where a radio interviewer asked him to describe the greatest achievement of his life.

Bader replied: "Going round Hoylake golf course in seventy-seven a few weeks ago."

Another story about the celebrated pilot is apocryphal but funny. It is often said that during a talk at a very proper girls' school, Douglas Bader described a dogfight in which he was involved.

"So there were two of the f***ers behind me, three f***ers to my right, another f***er on the left," he told his aghast audience.

The headmistress blanched and attempted to provide context to her young charges.

"Ladies," she interrupted, "the Fokker was a type of German aircraft."

Douglas corrected her. "That may be so, madam - but these f***ers were in Messerschmitts."

If only it were true. 

What is certainly true is that Douglas Bader was knighted in 1976.