“My dear chap, you’re just the type. Which hunt do you follow?”
When Johnnie said he did not even ride a horse, he was promptly shown the door.
The RAF’s top-scoring fighter pilot, Wing Commander James ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, with his Spitfire and pet Labrador ‘Sally’ at Bazenville landing ground, Normandy, July 1944. (photo courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)
“In 1937, “Johnnie” Johnson tried to join the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF). On hearing that he came from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the interviewing officer said, “My dear chap, you’re just the type. Which hunt do you follow?” When Johnnie said he did not even ride a horse, he was promptly shown the door. Little did that interviewing officer think he had just rejected the man who, in the second world war, would shoot down more of the enemy than any other pilot in the RAF – and without ever being shot down himself.”
From the obituary of Air Vice-Marshal James ‘Johnnie’ Johnson in the UK Guardian.
The insidious British class system often resulted in highly qualified men being rejected because they weren’t thought to be of the “better classes.”
You can read the entire obit here:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/feb/01/guardianobituaries2