LES Wright was a former pilot and gunner who earned the title of King of Lampedusa for his wartime exploits.

Together with his fellow RAF sergeants Sydney Cohen and Peter Tait, he took the surrender of 3,000 Italian troops on the island of Lampedusa during an air sea rescue flight in June 1943.

The trio took off from Malta in a Swordfish to search for the pilot of a German plane that had ditched in the sea. They dropped emergency packs to the downed German pilot and set a course back to Malta but a magnetic storm affected their compass and they were forced to land on enemy-held Lampedusa.

They feared a hostile reception but instead were approached by a number of high-ranking Italian soldiers who had had enough of being bombed by the Allies and wanted to surrender.

When the three men landed in Tunisia, they were immediately dubbed the Kings of Lampedusa.

In 1992, Les climbed back into the cockpit of a Swordfish to enjoy a memory-stirring flight over Somerset. This flight was arranged by Tony Howell, past president of Bournemouth Flying Club.

And in 2005 he made a nostalgic trip back to Malta to remember pilot Sidney Cohen, who died in 1946, and navigator Peter Tait, who died years later.

Les, who had four children and 10 grandchildren, spent his retirement building flying scale models of planes in which he once flew and was a keen walker and swimmer. In 1993, he was nominated for the Echo-Prudential Livewire Pensioner Award.

He died at home on April 1 aged 92.