A DECORATED wartime pilot who once flew the length of Africa in a Spitfire and later became a Devon farmer has died at the age of 99.

Group Captain Dennis Lyster of Sidbury, East Devon, flew on the RAF's first strategic bombing operation of the Second World War and completed 61 further missions, being awarded the DSO and DFC.

His exploits included attacking the German warship Scharnhorst at Kiel in July 1940 before increasingly taking on anti-invasion roles as the Battle of Britain progressed.

The son of a farmer, George Dennis Lyster was born on April 16, 1911 at East Oakley in Hampshire. The annual visit of some Bristol fighters to his father's farm made Lyster determined to be a pilot.

He took lessons in early 1930 and his first solo flight created a stir. After getting lost he landed at a nearby RAF airfield, where he bought fuel for two shillings and sixpence and asked for directions home. He joined the RAF in 1935, training in Egypt before joining 83 Squadron.

He had always had a deep interest in navigation and at the end of 1940 attended a specialist navigation course before returning to No 83 as a flight commander.

Over the next few months he attacked many German cities, flying inadequate and unheated bombers in all weather on sorties that often lasted eight hours or more.

After completing another 22 operations, Lyster was rested and became an instructor at a bomber training unit. He was assessed as exceptional and was awarded the DSO.

For the rest of the war he remained an instructor but, on the night of June 1/2, 1942 he was co-opted to take part in the second of the 1,000-bomber raids when Essen was the target.

For his services as a chief flying instructor he was awarded the DFC. After the war he completed the RAF Staff College course at Haifa before joining the HQ staff of Middle East Air Force in Egypt.

Whenever given a ground appointment he made strenuous efforts to fly as often as possible. In February 1948 he took a Spitfire from Fayid in Egypt to the South African Air Force base at Waterkloof near Johannesburg, with ten refuelling stops, then demonstrated it at airfields in South Africa and Northern and Southern Rhodesia.

Lyster converted to jets in 1951 and in January 1953 was appointed to command the Examination Wing of the Central Flying School. He later commanded the fighter airfield at Stradishall in Suffolk, where he flew the latest jets, and his final appointment was at HQ Fighter Command. He retired in January 1961, having flown 64 different types of aircraft.

After leaving the RAF he renovated a row of fisherman's cottages in West Bay, Dorset. With his son he bought a dairy farm near Honiton. He was known in the area for loud thuds as he dynamited tree stumps to clear his land. A skilled horseman and shot, he maintained a deep interest in and love for the countryside and for nature.

He finally settled on a farm at Sidbury, amazing family and friends when he persuaded a surgeon to fit a replacement knee when in his mid 90s.

Dennis Lyster died on June 24. He married Molly Richardson in 1935; she died in 1983. He later married Pauline Broadburn. She survives him with a son from his first marriage.