VCs of the First World War: The Air VCs E-Book

Peter G. Cooksley

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Of more than 600 Victoria Crosses awarded to British and Empire servicemen during the First World War, nineteen were awarded to airmen of the newly formed Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. Of these, four were posthumous awards and all but one of the total were to officers. Some of these valorous airmen were from humble backgrounds and with limited education; others were collegiate men from wealthy families. But in the words of one senior officer they all had in common 'the guts of a lion'. Each VS winner's act of bravery is recorded here in intricate detail, along with their backgrounds and their lives after the war.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When this work was originally published the late Peter Cooksley expressed his gratitude for the help given him by the following: Katherine Spackman and Joan Taylor, Bruce Robertson, John Smallwood, Derek Mottershead, G. Stuart Leslie (custodian of the GSL/JMB photographic collection), Stephen Snelling, Norman Gillam (medal and awards expert), John Garwood (Air Historical Society, New Zealand), Keith Keohane (The Australian Society of World War 1 Aero Historians), Alan Rowe and Alan Fraser (The Australian Society for Aero-historical Preservation) Mike Eddison (Chester Record Office).

Other sources of information have included notes from past conversations with, and letters from, the late Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Gould Lee, Major Wilfred Harvey and Charles Andrews, Cross & Cockade Society International – The Society of World War One Aviation Historians, museums in Britain and Canada, St Catherine’s House, London and innumerable public libraries

Peter G. Cooksley, 1996

In addition to those mentioned above by Peter Cooksley I would like to thank the staff of the following institutions for their assistance in preparing this revised edition: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Fleet Air Arm Museum, The National Archives and Royal Air Force Museum.

Individuals whose assistance has been invaluable include: Gerald Gliddon, who conceived this series, has given me much support and advice. Fellow Friends of the Great War Peter Harris and Steve Snelling have been generous with their time and help on numerous queries. I am indebted to David Cohen and Tony Freall for sending me the archive on Major Mannock as compiled by the late Tony Spagnoly. Others who provided material or assistance who are not mentioned here are acknowledged in the Sources section. As usual, my wife, Gill, has been of great support during the research and writing of this book.

Peter F. Batchelor, 2014

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Preface to the 2014 edition

Introduction

W.B. Rhodes-Moorhouse

R.A. Warneford

L.G. Hawker

J.A. Liddell

G.S.M. Insall

R. Bell-Davies

L.W.B. Rees

W.L. Robinson

T. Mottershead

F.H. McNamara

A. Ball

W.A. Bishop

J.T.B. McCudden

A.A. McLeod

A. Jerrard

E. Mannock

F.M.F. West

A.F.W. Beauchamp Proctor

W.G. Barker

Sources

Bibliography

Plates

Copyright

ABBREVIATIONS

A/A

Anti-Aircraft

AAP

Aircraft Acceptance Park

ADC

Aide-de-camp

AEG

Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (German)

ANZAC

Australia and New Zealand Army Corps

AOC

Air Officer Commanding

AW

Armstrong Whitworth

B.

German two-seat aircraft category, regardless of engine power

BA

Bachelor of Arts

BE

Blériot Experimental

BEF

British Expeditionary Force

BSc

Bachelor of Science

C.

German armed two-seat biplanes of more than 150hp

CB

Commander of the Bath

CFS

Central Flying School (Upavon)

CMR

Canadian Mounted Rifles

CO

Commanding Officer

D.

Doppledekker (biplane) scout

DFC

Distinguished Flying Cross

DH

de Havilland

DSC

Distinguished Service Cross

DSO

Distinguished Service Order

E.

Eindekker (monoplane)

EA

Enemy Aircraft

FB

Fighter (reconnaissance) biplane

FE

Farman Experimental

FK

Frederick Koolhoven (designer)

GHQ

General Headquarters

HE

High Explosive

HLI

Highland Light Infantry

LVG

Luft-Verkehrs Gesellschaft (German)

MiD

Mention in Despatches

NCO

Non-Commissioned Officer

OBE

Order of the British Empire

OC

Officer Commanding

OTC

Officers’ Training Corps

RAMC

Royal Army Medical Corps

RCAF

Royal Canadian Air Force

RE

Reconnaissance Experimental

RMC

Royal Military College (Canada)

RNAS

Royal Naval Air Service

RAF

Royal Air Force

RFC

Royal Flying Corps

RSM

Regimental Sergeant Major

RTO

Rail Transport Officer

SE

Scouting Experimental

SPAD

Société Pour Aviation et ses Derives

UPS

University and Public Schools’ Brigade

VC

Victoria Cross

WFA

Western Front Association

PREFACE TO THE 2014 EDITION

This book, first written by the late Peter G. Cooksley, was originally published in 1996 as one of the volumes in the thirteen-book series VCs of the First World War and The History Press are now reissuing these titles in a new format. I have been asked by the company to revise and update this work, and with their permission I have revised this particular book to bring it into line with the design of other titles in the series.

Interest in the First World War has increased dramatically in the past years as is evident by the numbers of books being issued together with the great number of magazine and newspaper articles being published as well as the amount of new programmes broadcast on radio and television. During this period access to primary sources including those of servicemen has become more readily available and the advent of Internet websites which provide facsimile copies of actual documents has been a boon to researchers, writers and family historians alike. However as with all secondary sources, other information available online should be verified where possible.

In 2012 the British Government laid out plans to commemorate the centenary of the First World War and as part of these commemorations it published a scheme in which every winner of the Victoria Cross would have a paving stone erected in his memory in his town of birth. It was quickly pointed out that this would exclude many VC holders who had been born overseas. The policy was then adapted to include the place or town in Great Britain with which the VC recipient was most associated. Even if this idea wasn’t suitable the Government would hope that the country of birth would provide, if not a paving stone at least some form of remembrance.

After an open competition the winning design of the VC paving stone by Charlie MacKeith was unveiled on 4 November 2013 and it is both simple and effective. The stone also incorporates an electronic reader which can be scanned by a suitable device which would provide the user with further information on the life of the VC winner. Despite this idea being commendable it has run into problems with rival towns staking a claim when on some occasions they had no right to. Sadly of the nineteen aviators who I have written about in this book only ten of them were definitely born in the United Kingdom:

W.B. Rhodes-Moorhouse – Knightsbridge, London

L.G. Hawker – Longparish, Hampshire

J.A. Liddell – Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear

R. Bell-Davies – Kensington,London

L.W.B. Rees – Caernarfon, Wales

T. Mottershead – Widnes, Cheshire

A. Ball – Nottinghamshire

J.T.B. McCudden – Brompton, Kent

A. Jerrard – Lewisham, London

F.M.F. West – Bayswater, London

The remaining nine men were born in the following countries and after each is the area(s) within the UK (if any) which is currently being considered by the British Government for a commemorative stone:

R.A.J. Warneford – Darjeeling, India – Stratford on Avon/Exmouth

G.S.M. Insall – Paris, France

W.L. Robinson – near Marcara, Southern India – Harrow Weald

F.H. McNamara – Rushworth, Victoria, Australia

W.A. Bishop – Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada

A.A. McLeod – Stonewall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

A.F.W. Beauchamp Proctor – Mossel Bay, Cape Province, South Africa

W.G. Barker – Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada

E.C. Mannock – Either Brighton, Sussex or Cork, Ireland – Brighton/Cork

So although all nineteen of these early aviators fought, and in some cases died, whilst in the service of Great Britain, only the stories of just over half could be available via the commemorative paving stones. These stones will be unveiled commencing in 2014, in the years corresponding to when the VC was awarded during the First World War, 1914–18.

Peter F. Batchelor

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

February 2014

INTRODUCTION

During the First World War, 628 awards of the Victoria Cross were made and of these nineteen went to men of the Flying Services. The aim of this book, one of the thirteen volumes of the VCs of the First World War series, is to give a short biography of each of these servicemen.

When war was declared against Germany and her allies on 4 August 1914 the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was only just 2 years old, its Royal Warrant having been granted in April 1912. By 15 August the four squadrons of the RFC, a little over sixty aircraft, were assembled at Amiens, France, under the command of Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson. The aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) initially remained in England for home defence. These first RFC squadrons were composed of a variety of machines that were often extremely fragile in their design and not really suitable for military purposes.

The RFC suffered its first fatal air casualties in action when two airmen died after their machine was hit by ground fire on 22 August. It was also on this day that an RFC aircraft spotted and reported that the German First Army was advancing to threaten the flank of the BEF. This invaluable information enabled the British ground forces to be repositioned and avoid being cut-off. Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander of the BEF, in his first war despatch, dated 7 September, praised the RFC for their ‘admirable work and accurate information’.

The initial war of movement became a more static, trench-bound conflict as both sides entrenched on the River Aisne before attempting to out-manoeuvre each other in the race to gain control of the Channel ports. This culminated in what was later to be named the First Battle of Ypres, which opened in mid October. By the close of operations a little over a month later the German advance had been finally halted.

The RFC, who had mirrored the movements of the BEF since August, established their HQ at St Omer and were actively involved in an important artillery co-operation role using wireless telegraphy in addition to their more usual reconnaissance duties. In the months that followed the aircraft also became involved in photography and rudimentary bombing raids.

It was on one such bombing raid that the first VC was awarded to a member of the RFC. On 26 April 1915, Second Lieutenant William Rhodes-Moorhouse was seriously wounded in an attack on Courtrai railway station but managed to return to base and submit his report before succumbing to his injuries shortly after.

Five further VC awards followed during 1915, each for differing acts of valour: Second Lieutenant Reginald Warneford was honoured for being the first airman to destroy an enemy airship; Captain Lanoe Hawker was the first to receive the award for aerial combat; Captain Aidan Liddell, although badly wounded, landed his damaged aircraft and saved the life of his observer; Second Lieutenant Gilbert Insall’s aircraft was hit after destroying an enemy aircraft but he managed to land and save his aircraft; and the last VC award of the year went to Squadron Commander Richard Bell-Davies for his courageous rescue of a fellow pilot near the Turkish–Bulgarian border. This was the first VC to be awarded to a member of the RNAS and consequently had the blue naval ribbon.

The bodies of Rhodes-Moorhouse, Warneford and Liddell were all brought home for burial, contrary to the edict which was in force from April 1915.

In August, Brigadier General Sir Hugh Trenchard had been appointed GOC of the RFC. He adopted an aggressive offensive policy in support of the BEF, and always strived to take the fight to the enemy despite the fact that the German Flying Services were often one step ahead. The RFC machines were involved in the major conflicts of this year, and by the time of the Allied offensive at Loos in September over 160 aircraft in twelve squadrons were deployed on the Western Front.

Various experiments were employed in the pursuit of arming aircraft, the most successful of which being the synchronisation gear (enabling a machine gun to fire forward through the propeller arc) fitted to the German Fokker Eindekker machines. These took a heavy toll of the slow British reconnaissance aircraft during the winter of 1915–16 and it was not until fighter aircraft, such as the DH2, were organised into squadrons that the tide began to turn in favour of the British.

The most ambitious allied offensive of the war to date, later to be named the Battle of the Somme, commenced on 1 July 1916, and by then the strength of the RFC had been increased to over 420 aircraft in twenty-seven squadrons. It was on an early morning patrol north of the battle area, near Loos, that Captain Lionel Rees won his VC when he single-handedly attacked and scattered a formation of enemy aircraft.

It would be two months before the only other air VC of 1916 was awarded. Second Lieutenant William Robinson became a household name overnight after he shot down an enemy airship over Hertfordshire on the night of 2–3 September. This was the first such feat over home soil and his VC investiture took place a week later, no doubt the War Office, for propaganda purposes, wishing to take advantage of such good news.

Only one of the air VCs was awarded to to an NCO, Sergeant Thomas Mottershead, whose aircraft was hit when he was flying over Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium, on 7 January 1917. The machine caught fire but the pilot managed to land, thus saving the life of his observer. Tragically Mottershead did not survive his injuries and died less than a week later.

As the need for aircrew increased, more men from Commonwealth countries joined the RFC, one of whom was Lieutenant Frank McNamara, the only Australian airman to be awarded the VC during the First World War. On a bombing raid near Gaza, Palestine in March 1917 he was badly injured by a premature explosion of one of his own bombs but despite his injuries landed, rescued another pilot and flew them both to safety.

The tide swung against the Allies once more when the Germans grouped their single-seater machines into large hunting formations, Jagdstaffeln (Jasta), culminating in the air fighting during the Battle of Arras, known as ‘Bloody April’, in which the RFC suffered its worst casualties of the war to date, losing almost 250 aircraft with over 300 aircrew killed, injured or made prisoner of war. It was during this battle that one of the younger recipients of the VC, Captain Albert Ball, not yet 21, received his award, and unusually the medal citation particularly specified actions spanning the period 25 April to 6 May. Ball was killed on this latter date after achieving forty-four accredited victories over enemy aircraft, the highest number to date by a member of the RFC. The final award of 1917 was made to a highly decorated Canadian, Major William Bishop, following a solo attack on a German airfield early on 2 June. This was the only VC to be awarded based solely on the pilot’s own combat report and without corroborating evidence. Bishop’s total of accredited victories numbered seventy-two – a figure which is disputed to this day.

The final year of the war saw seven further VCs awarded to airmen. The first of these was made for actions over a period of time. The medal citation for Major James McCudden specifically noted his skill as a patrol leader, in addition to the destruction of enemy aircraft between 23 December 1917 and 2 February 1918. His final total of victories was to be fifty-seven.

The last major German offensives of the war commenced on 21 March with an attack south of Arras, and less than ten days later the youngest air VC winner, 18-year-old Alan McLeod from Canada, showed tremendous courage in rescuing his wounded observer after his bomber caught fire and he was forced to land in no-man’s-land. During this enemy offensive the RFC lost over 1,000 aircraft in four weeks – over 200 more than during the 1916 Battle of the Somme, which had spanned over four months.

Italy had entered the conflict on the side of the Allies, but due to the heavy defeat of its army in 1917 by Austro-Hungarian forces support was transferred to that theatre late in 1917 including five RFC squadrons. One of the pilots was to receive the VC for service in Italy, Lieutenant Alan Jerrard. On 30 March 1918 he and two other pilots were involved in an attack on superior numbers of enemy in which, it was claimed, they were victorious over six aircraft, including three victories for Jerrard.

The RFC and RNAS amalgamated on 1 April 1918 to form the RAF, and four pilots from the newly designated force were to receive the highest military award. Captain Ferdinand West was the first airman of the RAF to win the VC on 8 August. He was very seriously wounded in his leg in an engagement with enemy aircraft but despite this injury flew back to base and submitted his important reconnaissance report. A South African, Captain Andrew Beauchamp Proctor received his VC in part for being the champion ‘balloon buster’ in the RAF as, over a two-month period from 8 August 1918, he had accounted for fourteen aircraft and twelve balloons, bringing his total of victories to fifty-four. On 30 October 1918 Major William Barker was attacked by superior numbers of enemy aircraft and in the ensuing melee he shot down four of these machines despite being seriously wounded. Barker was the third Canadian airman to be awarded the VC and the victories credited to him on this day brought his total to fifty.

The final member of the RAF to receive the award was Major Edward Mannock whose posthumous VC was gazetted on 18 July 1919 after much lobbying by his friends and supporters. The oldest airman to be so honoured, Mannock was 31, it is perhaps surprising that it took so long for the VC to be gazetted bearing in mind his achievements – probably sixty-one victories – and the great respect in which he was held within the RAF.

In the post-war years the general public were given the impression, through populist literature, of the heroic deeds performed by the aviators of the First World War, but it was not until many years after that serious aviation historians began to tell the real story. It is true that many RFC pilots came from privileged backgrounds and that those who began life in more humble surroundings had difficulty in being accepted. McCudden and Mannock both fall into this latter category but overcame these problems to become highly respected commanders who greatly influenced the men of the RAF who would later be fighting in the Battle of Britain.

Of the nineteen airmen who received the Victoria Cross only nine survived 1918 and all were initially employed in the Armed Forces in one form or another. Two of these, Beauchamp Proctor (1921) and Barker (1930) were to die in flying accidents but the remainder lived longer, and in some cases very influential, lives. The last air VC, Freddie West survived to the grand old age of 92, dying in 1988.

The motto of the RFC was Per ardua ad astra (Through adversity to the stars) and for the young men featured the words ‘For valour’ are also appropriate.

W.B. RHODES-MOORHOUSE

Courtrai, Belgium, 26 April 1915

On 22 April 1915, the Germans took the unprecedented step of releasing poison gas on a sector of the allied lines, north-east of Ypres, Belgium, with the result that, following the retreat of two divisions of French troops in the face of this new weapon, a breach in the lines 4 miles wide had been created. An airman who witnessed the release of gas was Captain L.A. Strange of No. 6 Squadron RFC who ‘saw a sudden bank of yellow-green cloud spring up above the German trenches and move towards the line held by the French 45th Division. On the ground the French troops viewed it first with more curiosity than alarm, but soon the gas enveloped them and passed on, leaving blue-faced dead on an open road to Ypres.’

There followed some of the most critical days which the Allies had then seen following this German breakthrough at St Julien, near Ypres. Considerable efforts were made in the air in order to maintain reconnaissance patrols and keep commanders constantly informed of enemy strategy. In combination with these patrols, bombing operations were carried out by the Royal Flying Corps. Four days after the enemy gas attack several simultaneous operations were ordered against concentrations of enemy reserve troops in the vicinity of Ghent in an attempt to prevent them being moved to the front.

Among the three designated targets for No. 2 Squadron, based at Merville, near Hazebrouck, was the railway at Courtrai and Menin Junction. The pilot of BE2b 687 ordered to fly against this target was Second Lieutenant William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, a 28-year-old married officer with a small son. His colleagues were ordered to attack Roubaix and Tourcoing, each with single two-seat aircraft, flown solo in order to take a bomb-load without reducing the machines’ performance. Take-off was made by the aircraft at 3.05 p.m., each carrying a 100lb high explosive bomb under the fuselage centre-section. Normally an observer would have been carried, the allocated officer to aircraft 687 being Second Lieutenant William Sholto Douglas. Of concern to Rhodes-Moorhouse was that he would be flying an aircraft which was not his usual No. 492 which was under repair after it had been damaged the day before during a photographic reconnaissance flight with Second Lieutenant Douglas.

It was about thirty-five minutes flying time from Merville to the Courtrai railhead, and on arrival, Rhodes-Moorhouse took care to make sure he had reached the correct target before descending to 300ft to accurately drop his bomb. This was a common practice at the time when bomb sights, if indeed used, were primitive and of little accuracy, and none were carried on this occasion.

However, this very visible approach provided ground troops with a very easy target bearing in mind that the aircraft speed was less than 70mph. Also the BE was approaching in a shallow dive, despite its pilot having been strongly advised by his flight commander, before setting out, not to venture too low but to release the bomb at just below cloud level. It was added that he was free to use his own discretion on this. A hail of rifle and small-arms fire greeted the attacker and was augmented by a machine gun, which was almost level with the aircraft since it was firing from the belfry of Courtrai church. The damage done to the aircraft was considerable. Nevertheless Rhodes-Moorhouse unflinchingly held his course to drop the bomb on the line to the west of the station. He had then to run the gauntlet once more to retrace his course for home in an aircraft already riddled by splinters from the bomb he had dropped.

One burst of fire had entered the cockpit of the machine, hitting the pilot’s thigh, and another hit his stomach. A bullet had also wounded him in the hand, and a continued loss of blood made him steadily weaker. Rhode-Moorhouse’s flight commander Maurice Blake and several others were sitting on the bank of the Lys Canal, which bordered the south of the airfield, listening to the gramophone when the stricken aircraft came into sight at 4.12 p.m. It was flying very low, just clearing a hedge, but made a good landing with the engine turned off. Blake, Webb-Bowen and three others – the pilot’s fitter, rigger and another fitter, 1175 Second Class Air Mechanic Percy E. Butcher, lifted the pilot from the blood-splattered cockpit and laid him on the ground. Before Rhodes-Moorhouse was taken to No. 6 Casualty Clearing Station, he was assisted to a nearby office for debriefing. Meanwhile his personal fitter counted ninety-five holes in the aircraft, some of them made by metal shards from the attacker’s own bomb. Sholto Douglas also inspected the aircraft and noted that the observer’s seat had been holed by half a dozen bullets. This would have been his observer’s seat but Rhodes-Moorhouse had refused his request to fly, as his weight, in addition to that of the bomb, would have slowed the aircraft even more.

Although medical care was lavished on Rhodes-Moorhouse, it was soon clear that his wounds were too grave for the surgical skills available at the time to save his life. The task of informing the pilot that he was not going to survive was made by Padre Christopher Chavasse, twin brother of Noël, who was later to win the Victoria Cross and Bar. However the dying man, who had only been with No. 2 Squadron since March, had already realised his condition was hopeless. Earlier he had expressed a wish that his body be taken home to England for burial, his only recorded reply to the minister being, ‘If I must die, give me a drink’. At about 2.30 p.m. he finally passed away having received Holy Communion as he requested, the faithful Blake still at his bedside since being called at 9.45 a.m.. In his good hand he clutched a photograph of his young son.

Less than four weeks later, Rhodes-Moorhouse was awarded a posthumous VC and the official citation published in the supplement to the London Gazette No. 29170 dated 22 May was as follows:

SECOND LIEUTENANT WILLIAM BARNARD RHODES-MOORHOUSE, SPECIAL RESERVE, ROYAL FLYING CORPS

For most conspicuous bravery on 26th April 1915, in flying to Courtrai and dropping bombs on the railway line near that station. On starting the return journey he was mortally wounded, but succeeded in flying for 35 miles to his destination, at a very low altitude, and reported the successful accomplishment of his object. He has since died of his wounds.

Perhaps the King’s decision had been influenced by the hopes expressed in a letter of condolence to Rhode-Moorhouse’s wife, Linda, from Douglas on 28 April: ‘I do hope such courage will be recognised with a DSO although we all think a VC would be none too great an award for such pluck and endurance.’ Maurice Blake, in a letter of 1 May to the dead airman’s mother, revealed that he had written a long account of the raid ‘to my father who sent my letter to my brother-in-law in the Scots Guards; it was shown to the King and my father has just written me that a VC is to be gazetted to your son for heroism’.

❖❖❖

William Moorhouse was born to Edward and Mary Ann Moorhouse, the second of their four children, at 15 Princes Gate, overlooking Hyde Park, on 26 September 1887. He had Maori blood in his veins, since his grandmother had reputedly been a princess of that noble race. William had been tutored at Harrow, after initial education in Hertfordshire, and later went to Trinity College, Cambridge, which he left in 1909. He was a vigorous young man with reddish-fair hair and brilliant green eyes. His background was sufficiently wealthy that he could devote himself to motorcycles and racing cars, the interests that always fascinated him.

He was the owner of several racing cars and attended motor rallies, trials and races, including events at Brooklands, where in 1908 he drove a 58hp Fiat named Linda, after his future fiancée, Linda Beatrice Morritt. However, he did not prove to be especially outstanding in this sport, so he turned his interests to flying.

Against a family background of inherited wealth (his maternal grandfather, William Barnard Rhodes, had amassed a large fortune in New Zealand, a considerable amount of which William’s mother – who had been adopted by Mr Rhodes – inherited after contesting the will), Moorhouse found no difficulty in personally meeting the expenses of pilot tuition. On 17 October 1911 he gained aviator’s certificate no. 147 in a Blériot monoplane similar to that in which the English Channel had first been crossed only two years previously.

The year had been a momentous one for young Moorhouse. He had, with his friend James Radley, designed a special version of this aircraft with a new Anzani motor – the Radley-Moorhouse monoplane, of which a silver model is still in the possession of the family. A photograph of this plane about to take part in the first Aerial Derby at Hendon on 8 June 1912 and bearing the racing number ‘8’ on the side clearly show it with a 50hp Gnome engine. Unlike the majority of versions of the Blériot XI, the rear fuselage was covered, as were the wheel discs to reduce drag, measures which were seemingly successful as it was placed third.

The year before had seen Moorhouse entertaining friends and enthusiasts with demonstration flights. Much of this activity took place at the 360-acre Portholme Aerodrome, Huntingdon, established by James Radley in 1910. He also travelled to the United States with Radley where, flying a Blériot monoplane, he successfully competed in a wide variety of meetings and air races. One report later stated that he satisfied his adventurous spirit by becoming the first man to fly beneath the span of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge but as the bridge was not completed until 1937 it was probably the actual Golden Gate Channel down which he flew.

Before this, his name had been added to the American Hall of Fame by winning the coveted Harbor Prize, worth the equivalent of about £1,000, towards the end of a triumphant tour during which he collected a substantial total sum in prize monies. Having sold the Blériot to Earle Remington in Los Angeles, he returned to England in February 1911 on the SS Lusitania. In 1912 he still flew whenever the chance presented itself and made preparations for his marriage. William and Linda were married on 25 June at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge and the event was later marked in its own way by him making the first aerial crossing of the English Channel with a pair of passengers – these consisting of his wife and journalist J.H. Lebedoer. The aircraft used was a French Breguet U2, two of which were entered for the British military aircraft trials at Larkhill to which delivery had to be made by 31 July. However, the weather was unfavourable and it was not until Sunday 4 August that it was possible to attempt the journey from Douai. It came as no surprise that, despite the Channel crossing being safely completed, it was carried out in the face of storms as the weather again deteriorated so that an early landing became essential. This was made at Bethersden, near Ashford, Kent, after a journey of 130 miles. Fortunately no one was injured except the clumsy-looking biplane with its narrow-track undercarriage, metal-skinned fuselage and two-bay wings. It had been blown against trees and damaged severely enough that there was no hope of entering No. 9, as it was known, in the trials as there was not sufficient time to repair it before the start of the competition.

In her wisdom Linda Moorhouse had realised the importance of aviation to her new husband. This was emphasised by her agreeing to the novel celebration of their honeymoon, but the experience it afforded also underlined the dangers of aviation. Therefore, although thrilled by her husband’s success, she begged him to give up flying for the foreseeable future. Although he agreed, it was probably with reluctance, and it was not until 6 November 1914 that he flew an aircraft again.

But if the two previous years had been full of adventure, his motoring experiences had not been without serious incident. At a Gloucester court appearance in late January 1913 he was found guilty of criminal negligence after a man had been fatally run over by his own cart, his horses frightened by William’s ‘powerful racing motor-car’. This was his twentieth motoring conviction in Great Britain. Earlier in that month he had been involved in a serious motor car accident, when in foggy conditions, his car was in a head-on collision with another. Moorhouse ‘sustained a severe scalp wound and concussion’ and was detained in Northampton General Hospital. Ironically he was being driven to Northampton Police Court where his driver was summoned to appear on a charge of reckless driving the previous week. Six years earlier, in 1907, while practising for a motorcycle race on a beach at Wellington, New Zealand, he was in a fatal collision with a young boy. An acquittal on a charge of manslaughter was the verdict in court.

He stood to receive a considerable fortune bequeathed by his maternal grandfather, but in order to do this it became legally necessary to take the additional name of Rhodes, the confirmation of which duly appeared in the London Gazette dated 21 January 1913, so that his and Linda’s only child, born on 4 March 1914, was therefore christened William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse. Later in the year the couple bought Parnham House, a fine sixteenth-century manor at Beaminster, Dorset, where he planned to build a cottage on a prominent knoll in the estate for his family.

However this dream was never realised, as the international situation was leading inevitably to a European war and his plans were put on hold as on 4 August the First World War began and Great Britain declared war on Germany. Rhodes-Moorhouse bade farewell to his wife and child on 24 August 1914, just twenty days after the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Germany, and joined the Royal Flying Corps as a second lieutenant. He soon made his first flight on 6 November and of twenty-five-minute duration over Brooklands, where he landed at 7.00 a.m. before leaving for South Farnborough, where he was to command the Aircraft Park.

His superiors’ choice of occupation for him seemed to many strange since Rhodes-Moorhouse had been the first pilot to perform a tail-slide in the United Kingdom and was generally a very experienced flyer. However the decision was made on medical grounds, as he was physically not fit for flying. Instead he had to be temporarily content with testing Renault engines for BE aircraft, but it was only a matter of months before his frequent appeals to higher authority, coupled with a growing shortage of experienced pilots over the Western Front, brought a posting to Major T.I. Webb-Bowen’s No. 2 Squadron at Merville with effect from 20 March 1915.

The Channel crossing from Folkestone to St Omer in BE2c 1657 was completed in one hour forty-five minutes. After a period spent familiarising himself with the surrounding countryside and in testing aircraft, trying out BE2b No. 492 on 26 March, Rhodes-Moorhouse was to find himself, with the rest of the squadron, involved in the air activity associated with the renewed struggle for Ypres. He flew the same machine on the following day when, at 7,500ft above Lille, he was ‘introduced to Archibald’, anti-aircraft fire. He was to describe this to Linda as being, ‘first a whistle, then a noise like a terrific cough’, while the ‘top centre-section of [No. 492] was hit by a shell’ two days later when he found ‘Archie in topping form’. These were the preliminaries to a struggle which was to take on a new and even uglier turn than previous battles with the introduction of poison gas.

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At the time of Rhode-Moorhouse’s death on 27 April 1915 it was not government policy for the dead to be brought home, but as he had especially requested a wish to be buried in his homeland, he was indeed brought home for burial. This was on the orders of the general officer commanding the Royal Flying Corps, Hugh Trenchard, and with the support of Sir John French, commander of the BEF. The dead airman was also awarded a posthumous promotion to first lieutenant, backdated to 24 April. These gestures would have been of slight comfort to his wife and family, who received his coffin and had it conveyed to Parnham. There he was given a military funeral with full honours, before being borne to the crest of the hillock once selected as the site of his new home.

The funeral procession consisted of twenty men, six assisting with the wooden hand-bier on which lay the coffin wrapped in the Union Flag. A seventh, an officer, supported the grieving widow at the rear as the little procession climbed the Dorset knoll. With the committal, the crash of the firing party’s three rounds blank and the sad, triumphant notes of the Last Post.

Twenty-two years later William and Linda’s son, William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse married Amalia, only daughter of Sir Stephen Demetriadi KBE, on 15 September 1936. William was a skier of Olympic standard and had been selected for the British team for the Winter Olympics of 1936, but an accident on the ski jump prevented him from competing. He had qualified as a pilot at the age of 17 while still at Eton, a little over two months before his mother qualified on 25 June 1931, at the age of 45, flying a DH Moth. In October 1933, William inherited his grandfather’s estate of a quarter of a million pounds.

William was commissioned as a pilot officer (90140) in No. 601 ‘County of London’ Fighter Squadron (‘The Millionaires’ Squadron’),Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 28 July 1937. This squadron was so named as its first commander, Lord Edward Grosvenor, reputedly only recruited members of White’s Club.

The following year he purchased Mortham Tower, Rokeby, North Yorkshire and started restoration before the war interrupted the work. His mother, who later continued with the restoration, was to live here until her death in 1973 and had a plaque to her son erected above the mower room.

In May 1940 he was serving at Merville, as had his father, and after the retreat from Dunkirk in May 1940 took part in the Battle of Britain with several victories to his credit. On 6 September 1940 Flight Lieutenant William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse DFC was killed in combat while flying a Hawker Hurricane near Tunbridge Wells. The crashed plane was buried so deep in a railway viaduct that the RAF left it there, but his father-in-law organised an excavation and William’s remains were found some days later. These were cremated and his ashes were interred in a corner of his father’s resting place on the hill which became Parnham Private Cemetery.

On his death, young William was 28 years of age and left recorded memorabilia housed in private collections which includes his father’s flying logbook. Inside, a paper insert records his flight at Brooklands on 6 November 1914 with the remark ‘Testing new machine, Very nice, Good climber’. The pencil claimed to be that used for entries in the logbook also survives. It is stamped ‘Made in Bavaria’ with a slide-on steel cap. Other items are a portrait of him, in its original card mount, in the cockpit of a Breguet biplane, possibly an L2 and probably taken at Douai, as well as the slightly rusted pin from a bomb together with an envelope on which is written by hand in ink: ‘This is the safety pin removed from the 100lb bomb just before your father started off for Courtrai, just as he was going to leave. It was in his pocket when he came back, M.B.B.’ – written by Maurice Blake, Rhodes-Moorhouse’s flight commander.

Also there survives a letter from the father he never knew expressing, above all, his deep affection and admiration for the young wife he had left behind in England, and with whom, he stressed, he never had ‘a quarrel or misunderstanding’. He urged his son always to seek the advice of Linda and expressed hope that the lad would eventually become an engineer with ‘a useful knowledge of machinery in all forms’. Finally he encouraged the boy to ‘keep up your position as a landowner and a gentleman’.

Early on the afternoon of Rhodes-Moorhouse senior’s last sortie he had handed this letter to Blake after adding a prophetic postscript, ‘I am off on a trip from which I don’t expect to return but which will I hope shorten the War a bit. I shall probably be blown up by my own bomb or if not, killed by rifle fire.’

William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse is commemorated on the Lamport war memorial in Northamptonshire and a number of memorials exist in his name. In February 1948, the RAF Benevolent Fund built twenty-six houses at Morden, Surrey. One group was called Trenchard Court, the other Rhodes-Moorhouse Court.

A parade was held at Beaminster on 3 July 1965 in honour of the first air VC, with a graveside ceremony at Parnham House. In 1982 the RAF Museum issued an aero-philatelic cover commemorating the VC bombing raid, which was flown on the anniversary in Jaguar T Mark 2 XX843, from RAF Laarbruch, over the route that was used. His name is also included on the roll of honour at St Clement Danes Church, on the Strand, London.

In September 1991, the medals awarded to William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse were sold by Sotheby’s at the RAF Museum, Hendon, and the proceeds used to set up The W.B. Rhodes-Moorhouse VC Trust which provides scholarships through the Air League and charitable donations. The selling price of £126,500 was then a record for a Victoria Cross. The medals awarded to William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse (VC, 1914–15 Star, BWM, Victory Medal) are now displayed in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, Imperial War Museum, London.

In 1966 No. 10 Squadron RAF was re-formed and equipped with VC 10 CMK.1K aircraft, and almost thirty years later, in March 1995, it was announced that the squadron’s fourteen aircraft would carry the names of selected Flying Services recipients of the VC from both the First and Second World Wars. The name of William Rhodes-Moorhouse VC was inscribed on VC 10 serial No. XV108. later the scroll bearing his name was transferred to VC 10 serial No. ZA148. This aircraft was taken out of service in 2013, and it is planned that it will be put on display at the Aeropark, East Midlands Airport. During the normal decommissioning process at Brize Norton the name-bearing scrolls have been removed from each aircraft and it is planned for these scrolls to be put on display at Brooklands Museum.

R.A. WARNEFORD

Ghent, Belgium, 7 June 1915

Reginald Alexander John Warneford was one of five children of Reginald William Henry Warneford and his wife Alexandra and he was born in Darjeeling, India, on 15 October 1891. His father was an engineer organising the construction of the Cooch Behar railway in West Bengal. Alexandra was unhappy with the life at Cooch Behar and increasingly ‘homesick for the gaieties of Darjeeling’. Consequently she spent more and more time visiting her parents and sister at Darjeeling, taking her four daughters with her. The young Reginald, often known as Rex, had an adventurous childhood spending the days with his father and his ‘education’ comprised riding the footplates of the engines, learning how they worked. He also spent time on climbing expeditions, river journeys by raft, elephant riding and even being present at a tiger shoot. This ‘education’ was much disapproved of by his mother and her family and, late in 1899, when Reginald was away working, she had her belongings packed and with her four daughters caught the train to Darjeeling. At the time, Rex could not be found so she left without him and he was waiting when his father arrived back that evening.

There was silence from Darjeeling but a few days later Alexandra’s father and brother arrived and took a very unhappy Rex away with them. His father did not get over the loss of his family and descended into bouts of depression and heavy drinking. He died in a Bombay hospital in 1900.

Not more than twelve months after her husband’s death Rex’s mother married again, to a Captain Corkery, but as her son was rebellious and did not get on with his stepfather, his mother’s family decided that he should be sent to England. He travelled alone, and once in England, was placed in the care of his grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Lewis Warneford, in Satley, a few miles west of Durham. Rex enjoyed the village life during the winter of 1902 and, on learning that Rex ‘had a true, clear voice’, his grandfather sent him to study for a choral scholarship and he became a boarder at King Edward VI school at Stratford-upon-Avon. Here Rex particularly enjoyed subjects that required a practical application and quickly earned a reputation as ‘a character’, while the teaching staff described him as ‘individualistic’. These happy days were sadly not to last and ended after the summer term of 1904 when his grandfather’s health deteriorated so that he had to relinquish his work for the church. A lack of funds necessitated a move to Ealing where Reginald lived with his aunt Maude and became increasingly miserable living with his cousins.

On 11 January 1905, Reginald was entered for service with the P&O Steam Navigation Company’s subsidiary, the British India Steam Navigation Company. He was 13 years old and began an apprenticeship with the company, serving on board the liner SS Somali, a relatively new ship, and would work his passage to Calcutta. One of his main duties was to attend to the needs of the first-class passengers. At the end of the year he received the news of his grandfather’s death.

During his time with the shipping lines, when he served on no fewer than fourteen ships, Rex visited numerous countries and their ports and reportedly ‘enjoyed every minute of it’. In the early summer of 1914, when he was on leave from his ship in London, he found out from his aunt that his mother now lived in Woolwich and visited her there. After eleven years’ absence with only an occasional postcard from Rex, it was an awkward and brief meeting, with one of his sisters not recognising him, and he and his mother not knowing what to say to each other.

Rex heard the news of the outbreak of war when crossing the Atlantic as first officer on the oil tanker Mina Brea. The tanker made her way through the Panama Canal and up the coast to San Francisco where a cargo of oil was taken on before heading south, her destination Antofagasta, Chile, where the remainder of her cargo would be loaded. Due to the moving of a light used for navigational purposes the ship missed her correct course and ran aground in the early hours of 19 September, ripping holes in her hull and shipping aboard quantities of seawater. It was just possible for her to be re-floated at high tide and to make a slow progress across the bay to Antofagasta. After superhuman efforts by her crew and local workers it was possible to pump out much of the water and also offload 3,000 tons of oil so that on 23 October the Mina Brea was able to make a triumphant departure from the dockside. Cheering crowds and the local band saw her off on her 900-mile journey to the dry dock at Talcahuano which she reached on 28 October.

The damage, caused when running aground, was found to be more severe than thought, with one of the holes in the hull 44ft long and half as wide! As repairs would take some considerable time, the captain sent Warneford back to the owners, the London and Pacific Petroleum Co., with a sketch made by Rex showing the damages, photographs and a full report of the situation. Rex arrived in Liverpool in the middle of December and celebrated Christmas at Ealing with his aunt Maude and her family.

In common with many of his generation, Rex Warneford was keen to serve his country and his experience with the Merchant Navy seemed to make the sea most appropriate, but he was to be disappointed. As his attempt to enter the submarine service failed, he volunteered for the army. He attended the London recruiting offices of the Sportsman’s Battalions, a part of the Royal Fusiliers, and was interviewed by a blustering self-important sergeant in the recruiting hut which had been erected in the forecourt of the Hotel Cecil, the RNAS headquarters during the First World War. Rex was accepted into the 2nd Battalion and sent to Grey Towers, Hornchurch, an unattractive mansion where a large hutted camp had been erected in the grounds.

Warneford summed up the situation at Hornchurch when he called the Sportsman’s Battalions ‘a sort of Boy Scouts Jamboree for old gentlemen’. Disenchanted, he subsequently applied for a transfer to the Royal Naval Air Service in the belief that it would combine the excitement he craved with proximity to the sea. The transfer was granted, and although Warneford’s behaviour with the Sportsman’s Battalion is not recorded by biographers, that he made his presence felt may be judged by a memo added to the transfer papers by the commanding officer stating that the RNAS would doubtless find their new recruit ‘illuminating’.

Accepted as a probationary pilot by the navy on 10 February 1915, Warneford knew very little of flying. He was sent to Hendon for training, and gained his Royal Aero Club Certificate No. 1098 flying a Bristol biplane only fifteen days later. He was then posted to the Central Flying School at Upavon and whilst there he took the opportunity of driving his bright red sports car to Warneford Place near Sevenhampton, which had been the home of generations of Warnefords before being sold by Rex’s cousin Francis in 1902. Rex saw some of the Warneford coats of arms in stained glass in the mansion and later visited the church of St Michael at nearby Highworth where the verger showed him the Warneford chapel and memorials. The eighteenth-century Warneford Place had been built on the site of a Tudor building and was sold again, in 1960, to the author Ian Fleming who had it pulled down and a new building, known for some years as Sevenhampton Place, built in its stead. Fleming died in 1965 and is buried in Sevenhampton Churchyard.

Possibly owing to his unconventional upbringing Warneford still had a habit of juvenile behaviour, which at times could be extremely annoying to those around him. The dramatist Ben Travers for one, who knew the young man, described him as ‘a brash character … his cocksure and boastful nature annoyed us all’.

He was briefly posted to No. 2 Squadron RNAS at Eastchurch, where his behaviour did not improve. On one occasion, having paused in the doorway of the wooden hut which did duty as the officers’ mess, he:

strode into the middle of the room, pulled out his revolver, twirled it round in his hand, cowboy fashion and said ‘Hi suckers! What about this?’ before firing six shots into the roof. He then replaced his gun in its holster and left without another word. No sooner had he gone than the silence maintained while this exhibition was going on was broken as ‘All hell broke loose’.

When in the air he appeared to fly recklessly, but was always in effect in complete control, his skill never questioned. This was just as well, as he had earlier earned official displeasure by landing a Bristol aircraft on top of another, wrecking both, so that at Eastchurch, in Ben Travers’ words again, he was ‘received with mixed feelings’.

Such events culminated in him being banished from the station with a recommendation that he be dismissed from the service. However, he did have one sympathiser at Eastchurch as the station commander, Lieutenant Colonel E.L. Gerrard, was impressed by the young man’s flying ability. It can be assumed that it was Gerrard who was responsible for Warneford being posted to No. 1 Squadron RNAS at Dunkirk on 7 May 1915. Flying operations were carried out from the adjacent airfield of St Pol, commanded by Wing Commander Arthur M. Longmore, one of the early aviators.

Having watched one of the impeccable landings of which Warneford was capable, the wing commander summoned the newcomer to his office and declared that whatever ‘unsavoury reputation’ he had earned at home, he would now be judged entirely on what he did under his command. Unfortunately the opportunity to begin afresh was short-lived – that night, Warneford succeeded in driving one of the squadron’s tenders into a ditch. On learning this, Longmore was better than his word, giving the younger man one more chance.

The following day saw Rex making his first operational sortie in a Voisin, with Sub-Lieutenant John H. D’Albiac as observer. When they failed to return after two and a half hours, it was assumed that the machine had run out of fuel and made a forced landing. This was not the case as the aircraft did get back, but with only a few pints of fuel remaining in the tank. Afterwards, a shaken D’Albiac demanded never to be sent up again with a pilot who decided to pursue an enemy machine back to its base, often at treetop height, taking potshots at it with a rifle!