THE wartime navigator who served aboard Winston Churchill’s personal transport plane has died at the age of 97.

Air Commodore John Mitchell, who lived in the New Forest, served aboard the Avro York ‘Ascalon’ during the Second World War, flying the Prime Minister around the world from North Africa to Italy, the Middle East and Moscow, including the crucial Tehran and Yalta conferences.

As well as Churchill, who was code-named ‘the owner’ in transit, Air Cdre Mitchell navigated ‘General Lion’ - King George VI - and a host of other top military leaders on several occasions.

In his autobiography ‘Churchill’s Navigator’, written with Sean Feast, he related a bountiful supply of Churchill anecdotes, including the time that the famously hands-on wartime leader insisted on landing the aircraft himself, only for his stomach to get in the way of the control column with near disastrous consequences.

Born in Sanderstead, London, Air Cdre Mitchell’s civil service career was cut short by the war. Already in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, he was one of the first to be mobilised and just missed joining 98 Squadron, a Fairey Battle Squadron in France, where he would have undoubtedly been killed.

Posted to 58 Squadron at Linton-on-Ouse and flying the twin-engined Whitley, he flew his first bombing operation over Germany with less than 10 hours night flying experience. On his third operation, returning from Genoa, his aircraft ran out of fuel and ditched off the Kent coast.

He was rescued by the local lifeboat and became something of a national celebrity when he appeared on the front page of the Daily Sketch bedecked in a top hat and tails - with his uniform ruined he had chosen some new clothes from the local morgue.

After 23 operations he was sent to the US to help develop the first navigation training simulators, and on his return to the UK in 1942 he was assigned to the Ascalon.

After the war he was Senior Navigation Instructor at Cranwell and then held a similar post at RAF Manby, where he undertook long-range exercises over the North Pole in the converted Lincoln, Aries III.

He later returned to Air Attaché duties and was appointed to Moscow during the Brezhnev regime, finishing his career in the Air Intelligence section of the Ministry of Defence.

He retired to St Thomas Park, Lymington, where his death was officially announced on Tuesday.

Air Cdre Mitchell was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, as well as being awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Cross and the US Legion of Merit.