Famous Pipe Smokers

Adolph Gysbert Malan, better known as Sailor Malan, was a South African fighter pilot and flying ace in the Royal Air Force (RAF) who led No. 74 Squadron RAF during the Battle of Britain. He finished his fighter career in 1941 with twenty-seven destroyed, seven shared destroyed and two unconfirmed, three probable and sixteen damaged. At the time he was the RAF's leading ace, and one of the highest scoring pilots to have served wholly with Fighter Command during the Second World War.  Malan was born on October 3, 1910 to an Afrikaner family of Huguenot descent in Wellington, Western Cape, then part of the Cape Colony. He joined the South African Training Ship General Botha in 1924 or 1925 as a naval cadet (cadet number 168) at the age of 14, and on January 5, 1928 engaged as an officer cadet (seaman's discharge number R42512) aboard the Landsdown Castle of the Union-Castle Line of the International Mercantile Marine Co. which later earned him the nickname of "Sailor" a...