John McVicar Malloch ICD, was a South African-born Rhodesian bush pilot, gun-runner and sanctions-buster who flew in World War II and in various legal and illegal roles around Africa and the Middle East until the early 1980s. in 1978, he was the final recipient of the Rhodesian civil Independence Commemorative Decoration for services rendered to the country. Early life Jack Malloch was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa on 8 October 1920. In 1925, his family moved to Umtali (now Mutare) in the eastern highlands of Southern Rhodesia. He was sent back to South Africa in 1933 to attend a boarding school in Somerset West in the Cape Province, but was withdrawn from the school in 1935 to begin working as a garage mechanic. In 1936 he earned a driver's licence and began driving for the railways. World War II In 1943 Malloch was accepted into the Royal Air Force; in December 1943 he received his pilot's wings and was sent to an operational squadron where he saw service as a fighter pilot. In February 1945 he was shot down behind enemy lines and wounded. He was kept safe from German capture by local partisans, who found a hiding place for him in the mountains. In April 1945, he was flown out and was able to rejoin his squadron. Post-War career After the War, Malloch returned to Southern Rhodesia. He married his wife Zoe (née Coventry) in Salisbury (now Harare) in January 1948. He kept flying, and in March 1951 was one of the pilots who participated in the first Spitfire ferry of new aircraft from the UK out to Southern Rhodesia for use in the Rhodesian Air Force. A year later, in March 1952, he formed Fish Air with Jamie Marshall. Later, in October 1955, they sold the company to Hunting Clan; Malloch was retained as a pilot. The 1960s In 1960, Malloch formed a new company named Rhodesian Air Services (RAS), an airline head-quartered in Salisbury; from 1963 to 1964, the RAS was involved in gun-running in the Yemen. The following year, in January 1965, Malloch formed a new company called Air Trans Africa (ATA). In November 1965, Southern Rhodesia declared UDI from the British Commonwealth and became Rhodesia. In response, the United Kingdom applied strict sanctions, and ATA became involved in various sanctions-busting operations from 1966 to 1967. The Congo In 1960 the Republic of Congo (later