Tributes to Lancaster Bomber gunner and TT racer John Hudson

Described as a “great survivor” by his family, John Hudson was no stranger to putting himself in danger.

He served as a rear gunner in a Lancaster Bomber during the war, and then went on to become a motorbike racer, miraculously surviving a horror crash in 1971.

John’s funeral took place recently at Rainford Parish Church on January 30 after his passing aged 99.

John Hudson aka The Count in action motor racing and in an RAF line-up (second left)

John was pre-deceased by his wife Pat 14 years ago, and leaves behind daughters Yvonne, 61 and Debbie, 60, along with four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

John was born on Baxters Lane, Sutton, before later moving his own family to Rainford.

John left school at 12 and when the Second World War broke out tried to join the RAF but he was too young.

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Daughter Yvonne said: “He got in in 1943, and joined Bomber Command. He was in Squadron 576 and was part of all the raids.

“He was a rear gunner, the survival rate wasn’t great and that was the start of his amazing career. His war record was great and he went on to develop radar after in the RAF.”

John Hudson

His war service also involved dropped food parcels in the Netherlands, and repatriation flights returning ex-prisoners of war back home.

Another of John’s talents was art, having started during the war doing sketches. He later went to Liverpool Art College and became an art teacher at Childwall and produced many watercolour paintings, and in his later years even had a couple of exhibitions, including at the World of Glass.

John, with Pat when he was a student at Liverpool Art College after the war

It was in the late 1940s and early 1950s that John began motorbike racing, and he became known as ‘The Count’.

“He started racing in the TT and around the UK. At Ainsdale beach he did the sands racing and won the Sands Cup a few times, and he carried on racing.

“He knew Brian Ball and Geoff Duke, those people in St Helens, he was a part of that era.”

John Hudson

It was in the Isle of Man TT in 1971 that John nearly died in a major crash in the fog.

“He was quite determined, he had the fastest practice leg. He had a really big crash, he managed to break every bone in his body apart from his head.”

John somehow managed to live to tell the tale and later turned his attention to yacht racing, being involved with Southport and Eccleston Mere sailing clubs.

John Hudson

John continued yacht racing into his 80s and was still driving until two years ago, even surviving a serious crash several years ago.

“Whatever he was doing, we were all doing,” added Yvonne.

“He was a great survivor and lived a really big life. We thought he would live forever.

One of John's watercolours

“He just had this life outside being an ordinary person. He had two children and a wife and a normal existence in suburbia.

“He was an extraordinary man living an extraordinary life in an ordinary way.”