Tributes have been paid to a flying ace who helped run Elstree Aerodrome and was Britain’s oldest registered pilot.

John Houlder, who managed the aerodrome for more than 50 years, died on Thursday, February 2, aged 95.

Mr Houlder first learned to fly in 1938 at Brooklands Aerodrome, in Surrey. Within four months, he was able to fly himself to the other side of Hungary by following railway lines.

Pilot David Harrisberg, who trained at Elstree, said: “I knew John since 1984 when I first started to learn to fly and he was such a lovely man.

“He was an amazing and a really kind person. It’s a sad loss not only for the airfield, but for the whole community.”

Mike Browse, who works in the aerodrome’s tower, said: “Mr Houlder was a bit of an eccentric and a character, but he was a great guy and the perfect English gentlemen in many ways.

“He was a marvellous man and everyone at the airfield loved him very much for all the work he had done.”

Mr Houlder was born and raised in Esher, Surrey, and was the third generation of the Houlder shipping dynasty.

During the Second World War, he was an artillery gunner in the army, but was hit in his left arm by shrapnel from an Italian bomb while serving in Crete. The injury left him unable to use his arm for the rest of his life.

In 1950, he was appointed by Lord Aldenham to run Aldenham Aerodrome, as it was then known.

He went on to work with three generations of the family and ran the aerodrome for nearly 60 years, during which time he also wrote a history of the airfield.

Mr Houlder continued to fly into his 90s and was the oldest licensed pilot in the country, However, two years ago, he took a back seat with his work at the aerodrome.

He is survived by his three sons and a daughter.