From Airman to Attorney General: RAF Navigator Johnny Smythe

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Beginning with his birth in 1915 in Sierra Leone, the life of John Henry Smythe OBE MBE is almost unbelievable. From becoming a navigator in the RAF during the Second World War, to being held captive in a German POW camp, to being the Senior Officer making key decisions about the futures of the people aboard HMT Empire Windrush and becoming Attorney General for Sierra Leone; the twists and turns in this story are incredible. James from our sibling podcast Warfare was joined by John’s son, Eddy, and the BBC’s Tim Stokes to hear this account of life during and after the Second World War, in which we even get a glimpse of JFK.

Listen out for Eddy’s song, written in memory of his father, at the end of the episode. You can find the music video here.

Tim’s article can be found here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History here. I'm currently in Chalk Valley, a Chalk Valley
0:05.6	history festival. It's a little place, a little dip in the ground in Wilkshire, a beautiful,
0:09.6	little fold in Chalk downland. One of the many corners of this island that makes the most
0:14.2	beautiful, on planet Earth. I'm here camping with my kids surrounded by history fanatics. It's a happy
0:21.0	place we're together observing social distancing rules naturally, and we're commuting a Roman
0:26.7	Legionary Walks Past and Heated Conversation with a World War II renector. Medieval Blacksmiths,
0:32.8	hammer away at Bodkin-headed arrow tips. Historians, many of them alumni of the History Hit podcast,
0:40.4	give big talks in well ventilated tents. And the History Hit team sits around,
0:46.4	selling subscriptions and face masks, and having a bit of a laugh, we're having great time.
0:50.5	If you're here today or tomorrow, please come and say hello. If you're not, if you're elsewhere
0:56.4	in the well, so chilling out at home, then I've got a podcast for you, oh yes I do. You will
1:01.1	probably not have heard of this Second World War veteran, but trust me, you should have done,
1:04.2	and you're about to. John Smythe, Johnny Smythe, was born in Sierra Leone. He saved a navigation officer
1:12.7	in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War. He was shot down over Nazi Germany, it's meant to
1:17.3	years as a prisoner of war, not easy for a black man at that time. He returned to the UK and was a
1:24.2	big role model of mental for those who began arriving as part of the Windrush generation.
1:29.3	He retrained as a lawyer, he returned to Sierra Leone, and he ended up becoming a turnee general.
1:34.2	He's an absolute legend. In this episode of Downside History Hit, we are repeating an episode of
1:40.0	warfare, one of our sibling podcasts, in which James talked to Johnny's son Eddie and the BBC's
1:45.8	Tim Stokes to hear an account of the man's life. A man who seemed to be at the heart of everything
1:51.6	everywhere, even hung out with JFK. He's a truly remarkable figure. We have celebrated many
1:57.7	of the men and women of the Second World War generation on this podcast, and Johnny Smythe
	...

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