Battle of Britain veteran and aviation administrator; Born November 4, 1916; Died March 31, 2008. THOMAS "Tommy" Russell Thomson, who has died aged 91, was shot down in the Battle of Britain on October 28, 1940, three days before it ended, but survived to go on to a distinguished wartime and civil aviation career.

Thomson, a Royal Air Force pilot officer in 213 Squadron, was at 20,000 feet over the Isle of Wight when the squadron was attacked by a force of Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. The formation broke up into a series of dogfights, with the Bf 109s having a height and speed advantage but the RAF Hurricanes superior manoeuvrability.

Thomson evaded two enemy fighters but was hit by a third, losing pieces from his port wing. His left side was peppered with shrapnel, which paralysed his arm.

With his right, he opened the cockpit hood and prepared to bale out but the aircraft tilted and the cover slid closed, by which time he was too weak from blood loss to open it again. He crash-landed on the outskirts of Fareham in Hampshire, fortunately near a field first-aid post which saved his life. He spent 14 months in hospital before returning to active service, and in 1945, as a wing commander, became chief flying control officer, Fighter Command. He was mentioned in dispatches and left the service in 1946.

Thomson was born in Glasgow on November 4, 1916, and attended Strathbungo School, where he was a prefect and school sports champion, then Glasgow and West of Scotland Commercial College. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at Prestwick in April 1939, and trained on Tiger Moths. With the outbreak of war he was called up to full-time service the following year.

Thomson's post-war civilian career began in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and he transferred to the Colonial Office in 1952, when he was appointed chief air traffic control officer at the East Africa High Commission in Nairobi. He held various appointments in Kenya, including Chief Inspector of Air Accidents for East Africa.

He once had to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to reach a crashed East African Airways passenger plane, and buried all the frozen bodies to protect them until they could be recovered. He also spent two weeks in the jungle with native porters investigating another crash, encountering a tribe that had never before seen a white person.

In 1957, he transferred to the Kenya government as commandant of the newly completed Embakasi Airport in Nairobi and adviser on aviation policy.

In 1963, when Kenya became independent, he was appointed deputy director of civil aviation in Hong Kong, which administered Kai Tak airport, air traffic control over the South China Sea as far south as Vietnam, and search and rescue operations.

Thomson was promoted to director in 1966 and immediately set about changing the department to make it more commercial and less governmental. Designations of senior posts were changed from quasi-military to more businesslike, with, for example, the airport commandant becoming general manager.

He drew up forecasts that showed passenger numbers would double in seven years and cargo would quadruple in 10, then put phased development projects in place, including expansion of the passenger terminal and lengthening of the runway.

Thomson, realising the future growth of air travel, initiated in 1969 planning for an airport to replace Kai Tak, which was set in the burgeoning developments of Kowloon and Hong Kong harbour and thus had limited potential for expansion. Work on this project - which became the new Hong Kong airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok and opened in 1998 - was well under way when he retired in 1972.

His main recreation in Hong Kong was golf and he was a member of Shek O golf club.

He was awarded an OBE in 1972 for services to civil aviation and retired to Tunbridge Wells in Kent and later to Eastbourne in East Sussex, where he died in hospital on March 31, after a short illness.

Thomson married Diana Laws on August 21, 1943, a wedding that was put forward at short notice by a week for reasons kept secret from the bride and guests: Thomson had to be back at Ford aerodrome in Sussex for a clandestine meeting there with Churchill and his military commanders.

Thomson is survived by Diana, son Peter, five grandchildren and one great- grandchild.

He was predeceased on March 13 by his elder son, Russell, after an accident.