Walker on his final journey

As the bells tolled through the cold November air. RAF pilots held high the coffin of a war hero.

Shoulder to shoulder and draped in a union flag, they carried Flight Lieutenant William Walker on his final journey at St Clement Danes church on the Strand.

When Winston Churchill spoke about how "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed, by so many, to so few", he was speaking about men like William. He was one of the few - a young pilot who defended British skies from the might of Nazi Luftwaffe.

Like so many of his friends William Walker was shot down in action but he survived and returned to fight. The Battle of Britain was one of the turning points of the Second World War.

Walker was 99 when he died and was the oldest Battle of Britain pilot to fall.

The Battle of Britain memorial trust paid tribute to him, describing him as a man of warmth and wit, adding "our eldest veteran has taken to the skies for the last time".