Tony Jonsson
Icelandic aviator (1921-2001)
Þorsteinn Elton Jónsson, DFM (known in English as Thorsteinn "Tony" Jonsson; 19 October 1921 – 30 December 2001) was an Icelandic fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War. He was the only pilot from Iceland to serve with the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, and went on to a significant career in civil aviation.
Early life
Þorsteinn was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 19 October 1921 to Snæbjörn Jónsson (1887–1978) and Annie Florence Westcott Jónsson (1893–1936).
Second World War
Although his mother was English and Þorsteinn aspired to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a child, he was told by the British Embassy in Iceland that he was ineligible on account of his nationality. However, he took passage to England by trawler and enlisted at Padgate in 1940. As a sergeant pilot, Þorsteinn flew Hurricanes with No. 17 Squadron at Elgin; he then served in No. 111 Squadron, flying Spitfires first at North Weald and later in North Africa in connection with Operation Torch, during which Þorsteinn was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal. He was commissioned as a pilot officer on 13 January 1943. On a second tour of duty with No.
“Tony Jonsson” enters the record as icelandic aviator (1921-2001). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tony, Jonsson and Icelandic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tony Jonsson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.