Young Flying Corps Officers Wounded and Missing

Leighton Buzzard gas works, Grovebury Road c.1930 [Z1432/3/4/5/1]

Friday 12th October 1917: A 18 year old officer in the Royal Flying Corps is  recovering in King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, after a lucky escape. Second Lieutenant Edward A. R. Hills, the only son of the Vicar of Leighton Buzzard, was leading a patrol over the German lines when he was struck in the leg and his aircraft damaged. He started to return but a second shot broke off part of the propeller which struck him on the forehead. He stayed conscious just long enough to shut off his engine and land in a wood before passing out. He came round to find soldiers extricating him from the wrecked machine. Less than a week ago the under carriage of his aeroplane was shot away, and he was using a replacement aircraft.

The relatives of another young Leighton Buzzard flier, Lieutenant Fred Brasington, have been told that he is missing. He set out for the enemy lines with a pilot on Tuesday morning and has not been heard of since. Before the war Lieutenant Brasington was a pupil at the Leighton Buzzard Gas Works. He had served with the Royal Fusiliers since the early days of the war, but only recently took up a commission in the Royal Flying Corps. He had been in France for just a fortnight.[1]

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 16th October 1917

[1] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records the death of Frederick Thomas Brasington on Tuesday 9th October 1917. He is remembered on the Arras Flying Services Memorial.

Wedding at Bedford

Banksia Roses (Wikimedia, Creative Commons)

Wednesday 25^th April 1917: A wedding of considerable local interest took place today at St Mary’s Church, Bedford. The bride was Edith Florence Killick, youngest daughter of Caleb Killick of Bedford. The bridegroom was Captain Ernest James Howard of the Royal Flying Corps, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Howard of Essex. Miss Killick was a member of the Bedford branch of the Red Cross Society and did valuable work for the Society over a considerable period of time. She also assisted the Clerk of the Borough Tribunal ably.

The bride was given away by her father and was simply attired in a dress of ivory crepe de chine and serge, with hand embroideries in cream and silver. She carried a bouquet of pink carnations and white heather. The bridesmaid looked pretty in pink crepe de chine with a wreath of Banksia roses. The mother of the bridegroom wore a dress of black silk and carried a bouquet of Parma violets. Following the reception, the happy couple left for Bournemouth. The presents included a framed engraving from the Chairman of the Bedford Tribunal (the Mayor), a silver cream jug and sugar basin from the Town Clerk and a canteen of cutlery from the bridegroom’s fellow officers at Farnborough.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 4/5/1917

Edith Killick attended Bedford Modern School for Girls. Her wedding is recorded in the Old Girls' Association Newsletter of January 1918, held at Bedfordshire Archives (see under 'Personalia' below)

DAH9/1/7/6, Old Girls' Association Newsletter, January 1918 (Bedfordshire Archives & Records Service)

Lord Lucas Reported Missing

Lord Lucas [from Roll of Honour]

Tuesday 7th November 1916: Captain Auberon Herbert, Lord Lucas, an Old Boy of Bedford School and the owner of Wrest House (now in use as a military hospital LINK), has been reported missing. The magazine of his former school makes the following report:

“He was serving with the Royal Flying Corps in France, and made a flight over the German lines on November 4th. He did not return from this flight, and so far nothing has been heard of him or his machine. Lord Lucas was wounded during the South African War, in which he was acting as a correspondent of The Times. As a result of his wounds his leg had to be amputated below the knee. During the first few months of the present war he was a member of the Cabinet, holding the office of President of the Board of Agriculture. On the formation of the Coalition in May of last year he was one of the Ministers who retired. He immediately gave up political work and joined the Royal Flying Corps, although over the standard age (for this branch of the service) of 30.” “He soon gained his pilot’s certificate, and was sent to Egypt, where he did a good deal of flying. After a time he came back to England, and was for some months engaged in instructing recruits for the Flying Corps. A few months ago, while he was coaching an air pilot, his machine dived and the pilot was killed, but Lord Lucas escaped. Recently he went out to France for the life of greater activity which he preferred.”

Source: The Ousel, 18th November 1916 [Z447/23]

Lecture on the Royal Flying Corps

Tuesday 24th October 1916: The boys of Bedford School have enjoyed a lecture by Captain Court-Treat of the Royal Flying Corps on the organisation and work of that organisation. He explained how the Flying Corps was divided up into brigades, wings, and squadrons, with the squadron a complete fighting unit in itself, including a repair shop. Their numbers had increased dramatically since the outbreak of the war. The work of the Flying Corps includes not just fighting the enemy, but also preventing  enemy planes making reconnaissance over British lines. The difficulties of the Flying Corps’ own scouts in spotting important features such as bridges and railways, and in detecting hidden batteries, were explained.

The lecture was illustrated with an excellent series of slides. These included pictures of the flying machines used, the latest being a Curtiss battleplane with two engines and room for five people. There were also photographs of the German trenches, and of other fields of battle ranging from Ypres to a reservoir in Egypt. 

Source: The Ousel, 4th November 1916 [ref: Z447/23]

Two Aerial Duels

Private Arthur Humphreys [Luton Times]

Sunday 8th August 1915: Private Arthur Humphreys has written to his wife at 6 Tavistock Street, Dunstable describing two aeroplane duels he witnessed recently, from each of which the British pilot emerged victorious. In the first of these a German plane was scouting along British lines when a small British aircraft appeared and dived at him. The British pilot fired at the German, setting his plane on fire and causing the stricken aircraft to overturn. One man fell from the cockpit from a height of 500 feet. The pilot managed to return control and bring his plane down to a lower height but it dropped and he was burned to death. In the second fight a larger British plane was over the German lines when it was attacked by a higher flying German. The British pilot avoided the attack and launched an attack of his own, from which the German plane fled.

Private Humphreys, who is serving with the 1/5th Lincolns, is now in a base hospital at the Front with a wounded thigh. Coincidentally his brother Alfred, a lance-corporal in the 9th Lancers, also suffered a thigh wound at Ypres, with shrapnel so deeply embedded that it remains in his leg. He is now drilling recruits at Chigworth.

Source: Luton Times 13 August 1915

Aviator Hero Killed

William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse [Wikimedia]

Wednesday 5th May 1915: The funeral was held in Dorset yesterday for a frequent visitor to Bedford who was a well-known figure in the town. Lieutenant William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse met a  hero’s death last week after successfully completing an aerial mission during which he was fatally wounded. In earlier years he was an enthusiastic motorist, often seen with his racing machine. Once flying became a possibility he took up aviation. In 1909-10 he took part in monoplane experiments at Huntingdon with Mr. James Radley of Bedford, and gained his pilot’s license in October 1911 after flying 1,000 in a monoplane. He frequently flew over Bedfordshire on flights from Huntingdon to his home at Spratton Grange in Northamptonshire. Flying became his favoured mode of travel and he would use his aeroplane for any journey of more than a short distance, for instance flying from Hendon to the Northants Agricultural Show at Kettering with a stop at Spratton on the way. He began a “boots by air” service, taking parcels of boots from Northampton to London by plane. He suffered innumerable mishaps but seemed to bear a charmed life as he was never injured.

In June 1912 he married Linda Beatrice Morrit, another flying enthusiast. Two months after their marriage she joined him, along with a journalist, for the first flight across the English Channel in an aeroplane with three passengers; this succeeded despite hail and rainstorms, and more than once becoming lost in cloud. Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse  also flew competitively, with his best performace being third place in the Aerial Derby of 1912. At this time he was working with James Radley manufacturing aeroplanes at the Huntingdon Aerodrome, with a sideline in the production of motor bodies.

When the war began Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse was joined the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve and was soon commissioned. Five weeks ago he left for the front. On 26th April he was sent on a special mission to bomb a railway junction at Courtrai. After dropping the plane to a height of 300 feet and releasing a large bomb he became the target of a battery of rifles, machine guns, and anti-aircraft guns. Although severely wounded in the thigh he was determined to save his aeroplane at all costs and made for the British lines, descending to 100 feet in order to increase his speed. Despite being wounded for a second time, this time mortally, he managed to return 35 miles to his own base where he executed a perfect landing and filed his report. He died in hospital the next day and is to be buried at his family home, Parnham House at Beaminster in Dorset.

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 7th May 1915

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[1] Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross “for most conscpicuous bravery”. His son William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse, who was less than a year old when his father died, joined the RAF and was killed during the Battle of Britain after winning the Distinguished Flying Cross. For more about William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse and his background see Wikipedia.