Henry Botterell, the last of the fighter pilots that fought in the First World War, has died in Toronto. He was 106.

Mr. Botterell, who up until in his late 90s was swimming almost every day, died peacefully at the Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital, now part of Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, on Friday, less than two months after celebrating his 106th birthday.

One of 16 surviving Canadian veterans of the First World War profiled in a Globe and Mail series in November, Henry Botterell was believed to be the last fighter pilot from the 1914-1918 conflict, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mr. Botterell declined to take part in the series of interviews, but at a special air-force celebration four years earlier he recalled his days as a fighter pilot.

"I had good hands," he said then. "I didn't have the fighting acumen of some, like Billy Bishop. I was just a bank clerk. I wasn't one of the very best, but I had my share of action."

On Aug. 29, 1918, Flight Lieutenant Botterell flew his Sopwith Camel over Vitry, France. After dropping four bombs on a railway station, he was heading back to his airfield when he encountered a German observation balloon. He fired 400 rounds into the balloon with his aircraft machine gun.

With the balloon ablaze, the soldier leaped from the basket and opened his parachute. As the flaming remains of the balloon fell to the ground, Mr. Botterell had enough time to swing around and shoot his enemy, but didn't. Instead, he snapped him a chivalrous salute before heading back to base. The moment was captured by aviation artist Robert Taylor, in his painting Balloon Buster.

"He was an adventurer," said Jon Straw, a friend and former director of the Great War Flying Museum in Brampton, Ont. Mr. Straw is also working on a book on Canadian pilots who served in the First World War with Allan Snowie, a retired naval aviator who is now a pilot with Air Canada.

Like many of the veterans from the First World War, Mr. Botterell didn't consider his war efforts to be heroic.

"He didn't think it was any big deal, he thought he was just doing his duty," Mr. Straw said.

In 1916, Mr. Botterell was working for the Bank of North America (now the Bank of Montreal) when his older brother Edward, who played football for the Toronto Argonauts, was killed overseas by a sniper. A few months later, Henry, then 20, enlisted with the Royal Naval Air Service and was sent to England to train as a fighter pilot.

His sister, Edith, who worked as a secretary for an admiral at the time, had helped him get what she thought would be a safer assignment in the war. But that didn't prove to be true. At one point in the war, new pilots had a life expectancy of three weeks.

Mr. Botterell's flying career got off to a difficult start. Engine failure caused him to crash on only his second takeoff in September, 1917, at Dunkirk, France. He suffered head injuries, a fractured leg, and broken teeth and spent six months in hospital. He was eventually demobilized as disabled and discharged. But he later re-enlisted and qualified as a fighter pilot again and returned to France in early 1918.

His flight log reveals that he was attached to the 208th Squadron serving in France from May 11 to Nov. 27, 1918. His records show that during that time, he flew patrols and fought over places including Serny, Estrées and Arras. He then transferred to Belgium, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Wing Commander Neil Meadows, the commanding officer of RAF 208 Squadron, said in his condolences to Mr. Botterell's family that Henry "remains, an inspiration to our trainee pilots. I do feel that we have lost a tangible part of what we are, and what we aspire to be.

"Undoubtedly, he did not view his actions as out of the ordinary, but his courage and dedication to duty are an example that I hope our trainees will emulate in their own flying careers," he wrote on behalf of the squadron. "I am sure, therefore, that his spirit will live on with the young pilots that continue to serve on 208 Squadron."

During his war service, Mr. Botterell flew a variety of planes, but the Camel, which got its name from the hump created by two machine guns imbedded under its cowling, was his favourite. He had one particular close call, when on a flight a bullet ripped through his ear and smashed his goggles.

"I went out like a light for a few minutes, and I recovered just before I crashed," he once said.

Henry John Lawrence Botterell was born in 1896 in Ottawa to Henry and Annie Botterell. His mother raised him after his father died of pneumonia when Henry was a young boy. Henry attended Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa. An athletic young man, he played football like his older brother and remained physically active throughout his life.

"He was a loner," said his son Edward Botterell, adding that his father enjoyed sports he would do alone such as swimming, cross-country skiing and sailing. In 1919, he returned to Canada and to banking as an assistant chief accountant. He remained with the Bank of Montreal until his retirement in the 1960s. As a souvenir from the war he brought back a Belgian fence post that had snagged the wing of his Camel on a low-level flights. It is now in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

In 1929 he married and moved with his wife Maud to Montreal. They raised two children before his wife died in 1983 after suffering several strokes. During the Second World War, Mr. Botterell commanded an Air Cadet Squadron, in Quebec, though he himself never took to the air. After returning home in 1919, he gave up flying.

In 1999, Mr. Botterell was the guest of honour at a mess dinner commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. That same year he celebrated his own 102nd birthday at a hotel in Lille, France, where he and other Canadian veterans were marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the War.

Despite his failing memory, his son Edward said his father was "moved by the experience."

Mr. Botterell is survived by daughter Frances Marquette of Houston, Tex., and son Edward Botterell of Mississauga, Ont.

Henry Botterell, aviator and banker; born in Ottawa on Nov. 7, 1896, died in Toronto on Jan. 3, 2003.