THE funeral of former Battle of Britain pilot Squadron Leader George Pushman DFC has been held at Madresfield Church.

Canadian born Mr Pushman, who was 82, answered the call for pilots at the beginning of the Second World War and joined the RAF after training at a flying school in Hamble, near Southampton, Hampshire.

His wife, Muriel, said he had loved the idea of flying since he was a boy and watched an aerobatics display by Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly the Atlantic, and his team.

He would cycle 10 miles to an aerodrome outside Ottawa, to wash the planes in the hope of being given a ride in one.

During the Battle of Britain, Sqn Ldr Pushman flew Blenheim nightfighters with 23 Squadron, trying to pick-off German raiders, later using radar.

After transferring to 88 Squadron he flew Boston medium fighter bombers on low-level missions.

On D-Day when British ships traded shells with German positions at Le Havre, Sqn Ldr Pushman was among the pilots asked to lay a smokescreen to protect the ships, going on to strafe the landing beaches of Sword and Juno, before the landing craft went in.

Three days before, Mr and Mrs Pushman had their first child, a daughter, Maggie, followed by Tim - who died at the age of 12 in a railway accident - Nigel and Ross.

After the war, Mr Pushman began a successful business career, holding the most senior positions in several national companies before his retirement at the age of 57.

The family then ran The George hotel at Castle Cary, Somerset and later The Manor at Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire.

At Danemoor Farm, Welland, near Malvern, Mrs Pushman began to write the first in a series of books and her husband engaged in his great love of cooking, before the couple moved to Madresfield.

In the 1980s Mr Pushman was a founder member of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire branch of the English Speaking Union and became its treasurer and chairman.

He also established an annual young musicians competition for the George Pushman Music Prize, helped Worcestershire World War Two historian Dilip Sarkar with his research and was a member of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, which was represented at yesterday's funeral.