Ronnie Scott, Anglo-Argentine who volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm in 1942 and flew Spitfires
As soon as he could, in mid-1942, Scott volunteered as a British Latin American Volunteer or BLAV, one of a few thousand from Argentina. Much of the remainder of the year was spent in travel by sea with a contingent of 32 Argentine volunteers via the United States to Britain.
Arriving in Liverpool in April 1943, as a BLAV he was marked down for the Army, and he had to talk his way into the Fleet Air Arm, which was his only specific ambition other than a general determination to fight Hitler.
Joining No 53 Course, Scott was sent to Canada to learn to fly and, on return to Britain, he was commissioned as sub-lieutenant RNVR (Air). He first joined 794 Naval Air Squadron, part of No.1 Naval Air Firing Unit, where he flew target tugs, but then joined 761 Naval Air Squadron at the Naval Air Fighter School.
On November 17 1944 he flew his first solo in a Spitfire. He told the Argentine historian, Claudio Meunier, who wrote his biography: 'I took off with the canopy open … it was 55 unforgettable minutes ... when accelerating, the nose went down and you could see ahead perfectly.
'Adrenaline took over my body. Flying a Spitfire was touching the sky with your hands, it was the most exciting plane I could have flown up to that moment.
'I tried a tight turn, and I was surprised. My god! This was something else, the body was crushed against the seat and the aircraft took you wherever you wanted. Impressed. She was alive, it was incomparable.'
Later, Scott also flew the Sea Hurricane and the Seafire, navalised versions of aircraft made famous in the Battle of Britain.
Modestly he claimed to have had a 'comfortable war' as a flying instructor rather than in combat. Nevertheless, he came close to death, once when he suffered an engine failure and crashed into the sea off the southwest coast and also in London during the flying bomb blitz.
Scott was demobilised in 1946, and enlisted in the Argentine Navy as a reserve officer. After working in a textile company, he joined the national airline Aeroposta Argentina as a commercial pilot along with other wartime pilots, flying the Dakota DC-3 on the routes over Patagonia.
When Aerolíneas Argentinas was founded in 1950, he flew the Douglas DC-4, the de Havilland Comet 4, and finished his flying career in the Boeing 737. He was a founder of the Air Line Pilots Association, and he retired in 1978 with more than 23,000 flying hours as a commercial pilot.
During the Falklands War he admired the skills of the aviators of both the Argentine Air Force and his successors in the Fleet Air Arm.
Ronald David Scott was born on October 20 1917 in Buenos Aires, the son of a Scots veteran of the Boer War and an English nurse. Argentina was then one of the largest economies in the world, with around 60,000 Anglo-Argentines in Buenos Aires, served by a branch of Harrods in the Calle Florida and a Hurlingham's sports club. His father was one of the first referees of Argentine rugby.
Young Scott was educated at Belgrano day school and Hurlingham's Oates Sollege (which merged with St George's in 1935). One of his earliest memories was the British Industries Exhibition in Buenos Aires and the visit of the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, when Edward, Prince of Wales, playing polo at the Hurlingham, asked him to fetch a glass of tonic. After the prince and the 14-year-old fell into conversation, Edward asked his private secretary to arrange for the boy to visit Eagle, which inspired him to want to fly in the Royal Navy.
Prewar, Scott had started a typical Anglo-Argentine career as a junior clerk in Swift meatpackers. When war broke out, he raised money for the Spitfire Fund in the Argentine, and once he could place his widowed, ailing mother in a hospice, in May 1942, he volunteered for service in Britain.
Scott was an active sportsman, favouring rugby and cricket but also finding time for hockey, bowls, badminton and cycling. In quieter moments he played bridge.
He was always cheerful, very respectful and had many friends. A mainstay of veterans' organisations, he never missed a Poppy Day. In March 2021, he became a screen star, when the documentary Buena Onda ('Good Vibes') was made about him during the pandemic.
In 2018 the Argentine Navy made him doyen of their naval aviation arm; in 2021 he was made a life member of the Fleet Air Arm Officer's Association; and in 2022 was granted the Condecoración de la Armada Argentina.
He died at the British-American Benevolent Society retirement home, in the Buenos Aires suburb of Villa Devoto, where he was born.
The secret of old age, he said, was: 'Keep moving, and a daily glass of tinto.'
Scott married Marion Groyne in 1950. She predeceased him in 2014, and he is survived by their two sons.
Ronnie Scott, born October 20 1917, died April 17 2025
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