CHAPTER XXXIV
THE HEROIC DEAD
‘Those who die for their country,’ says the author of _The Wrack of the Storm_, ‘must not be numbered with the dead.... This death, on the field of battle, in the clash of glory, becomes more beautiful than birth, and exhales a grace greater than that of love. No life will ever give what their youth is offering us, that youth that gives, in one moment, the days and the years that lay before it. There is no sacrifice to be compared with that which they have made; for which reason there is no glory that can soar so high as theirs, no gratitude that can surpass the gratitude which we owe them. They have not only a right to the foremost place in our memories: they have a right to all our memories and to everything that we are, since we exist only through them.’
Amongst the heroic aviators who have made the supreme sacrifice is Lieutenant William Herbert Stuart Garnett, R.F.C., who was killed while making a flight. While still at the university, Mr. Garnett, who in 1903 took a First Class in the Mechanical Science Tripos, wrote a book on the turbine engine, which went through several editions, and was translated into German. After a brief spell as a master at Eton, he was called to the Bar, and though he did not practise, he produced a valuable book on ‘Children and the Law.’ Mr. Garnett had made a special study of the National Insurance Act, and joined the legal department of the Commission when it was set up. On the outbreak of war he joined the R.N.V.R., and did valuable work in mine-sweeping for nearly a year. He was a son of Dr. William Garnett, the eminent educationalist.
Many other men of high promise have made the great sacrifice. Captain Keith Lucas, R.F.C., who was killed in a flying accident on October 5, 1916, had already acquired a world-wide reputation as one of the most promising physiologists of the younger generation. Captain Lucas was born in 1879, was the son of Francis Robert Lucas, and was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow in 1904. He was elected F.R.S. in 1913, and was invited to give the Croonian lecture to the Royal Society even a year before his election to it. Before the war he was fully engaged in both teaching and research work at Cambridge, and was, moreover, one of the directors of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. But on the outbreak of war all this was put aside in order that he might devote his rare instrumental skill and inventiveness to the Flying Services.
Lieutenant Anderson Mann, R.F.C., who lost his life whilst on active service on August 9, 1916, was twenty-one years of age, and was educated at Ardvreck, Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge. Mr. Mann was the best rifle shot of his year in the Public Schools. On the outbreak of war he was gazetted to the Scottish Rifles, and joined the R.F.C. in March last. Shortly afterwards he and his pilot distinguished themselves by bringing down eight German aeroplanes in seven days. They were each awarded the Military Cross for consistent gallantry and skill. Mr. Mann was the eldest son of Mr. John Mann, chartered accountant, of Glasgow and London.
Captain Leslie Charles, R.F.C., who was killed in action on July 30, 1916, was the second son of Mr. and Mrs. R. Stafford Charles, of Broomfield, Stanmore. He was educated at Stanmore Park, where he took a Mathematical Scholarship for Harrow. At Harrow he became a member of the O.T.C. and the Philatelic Club, and was also head of his house. He left Harrow in July, 1914, and in the following month received a commission in the Worcestershire Regiment. In May, 1915, he was sent to Gallipoli, and was present at the battles of June 4-9. He was subsequently invalided home, and was gazetted Captain on November 20, 1915. Early in 1916 he joined the R.F.C., and took his pilot’s certificate in April. He left for active service on July 5 and lost his life in a combat in the air over the German lines.
Second-Lieutenant J. Hampson Dodgshon, who lost his life on October 1, 1916, at the age of twenty-five, was educated at Westminster, and was a member of the school cadet corps. He joined the H.A.C. in July, 1913, and played Rugby Football for the corps. He went abroad with the H.A.C. in September, 1914, and spent the first winter of the war fighting in Flanders and France. He was invalided home, and on his recovery was gazetted to a commission in the Surrey Yeomanry. He served for six months in Egypt, and was at the Dardanelles as Assistant Military Landing Officer. On his return to England he declined a post as Assistant Equipment Officer in the R.F.C., as he felt he ought to take a more active part in the war. He obtained his ‘wings’ in August, and was made an instructor. His commanding officer writes of him: ‘His memory will be green for ever.’
Captain Brooke-Murray, another heroic officer to lose his life in action, was educated at Cheltenham College. At school he was a very good shot, and was in the Cheltenham Bisley Eight of 1908, 1909, and 1910. Entering Sandhurst in September, 1910, he was gazetted to the A.S.C. in 1911. He went to France in August, 1914, with the first Expeditionary Force, and took part in all the operations of the 19th Brigade from Mons to the Marne and Aisne, Ypres and Armentières. From April to July, 1915, he was adjutant of the advanced Horse Transport, and from July to October, 1915, he was staff captain, G.H.Q. Afterwards he became embarkation officer, Marseilles, and officer to the Divisional Ammunition Park (April to June, 1916). He was then flying officer observer to the date of his death from wounds received in action on September 16 in an air combat against three enemy aviators.
The Royal Naval Air Service has lost a valuable officer by the death in a flying accident of Squadron-Commander Dalrymple Clarke. Before joining the R.N.A.S., in 1913, he was in business in London, and prior to that he was an officer of cavalry. After joining the R.N.A.S., he was stationed for some time at Eastchurch, and quickly showed that he was not only a very fine pilot, but had the gift of studying his machine’s peculiarities and reporting thereon in a manner which made his tests of high value to the Service. From Eastchurch he was transferred to the Central Flying School, under Commodore (then Captain) Godfrey Paine, R.N., and was appointed an instructor. There he did much useful work, and was responsible for the training of many pilots who have since distinguished themselves on active service. Later on he was appointed to experimental work, and carried out many tests which produced far-reaching results, not only as regards aeroplanes, but also concerning engines, bomb-dropping, and various scientific adjuncts to aircraft.
Another loss to the Royal Naval Air Service and the country came with the death of Flight-Lieutenant Charles Walter Graham, R.N., D.S.O., who was awarded the D.S.O. for his services on December 14, 1915, when, with Flight-Sub-Lieutenant A. S. Ince as observer and gunner, he attacked and destroyed a German seaplane off the Belgian coast.
The Royal Flying Corps lost another most promising officer with the death in action of Captain J. O. Cooper, R.F.C., previously reported missing, now stated to have fallen in action. He was twenty years of age, and was the youngest son of Lady Cooper, of Ossemsley Manor, Christchurch, Hampshire. Educated at Lockers Park and Harrow, he returned from Australia for the war. He joined the R.F.C. and got his commission in January, 1915. Captain Cooper was considered by all who knew him one of the most promising men in the R.F.C., and if he had been spared would, it is said, have led a squadron before he was twenty-one.
Further loss came with the death in action of Lieutenant Ian Macdonnell, R.F.C. He obtained his brevet from the Royal Aero Club as a pilot in December, 1913, after passing through the Bristol School of Flying at Brooklands. Soon after the outbreak of war he was gazetted a lieutenant in his father’s regiment, Lord Strathcona’s Horse. In March, 1915, he became A.D.C. to Brigadier-General J. E. B. Seely, C.B., D.S.O., commanding the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, and served with them in the trenches, including the battle of Festubert, till he became attached, on probation, to the R.F.C. in September, 1915. He was gazetted flying officer on November 6 of the same year. He met with a serious accident through the failure of his engine in December, 1915. His observer was killed and he himself more or less seriously injured. He reported for duty with the R.F.C. on May 18, 1916. His major in the R.F.C. wrote that he was very skilful, full of daring and gallantry. He was a grandson of Lieutenant-Colonel J. T. Campbell, a Crimean veteran, and his father belonged to a Cadet family of the Macdonnells of Glengarry, which have given so many officers to the Empire.
In the case of another gallant officer, Second-Lieutenant L. C. Kidd, death followed quickly upon brilliant achievements. Shortly before his death he was awarded the Military Cross. He took his pilot’s certificate at Hendon before the war, and was tea-planting in Ceylon when war was declared. He returned as soon as possible, and was at once given a commission in the R.F.C., and, after a short period of home training, went to the front in February, 1916. Since then, with two short intervals of leave, he had been flying continuously at the front.
Amongst other names on the Roll of Honour we would mention Second-Lieutenant J. S. Mitchell, Second-Lieutenant Aubrey F. A. Patterson, Second-Lieutenant Robert Shirley Osmaston, M.C., and Lieutenant Edward Carre.
Second-Lieutenant J. S. Mitchell, R.F.C., was the only son of Colonel and Mrs. Mitchell, of Sandygate, Wath-on-Dearne, Rotherham. He was educated at Bramcote School, Scarborough, and Rugby, leaving there in July, 1914. He went for a tour to Australia and Canada, returning in July, 1915, when he began to work on munitions at Sheffield. In January, 1916, he applied for a commission in the R.F.C., and was gazetted in June, being appointed a Flying Officer on September 4. He died abroad of injuries accidentally received on October 5, aged twenty.
Second-Lieutenant Aubrey F. A. Patterson, R.F.C., who is unofficially reported as having died of wounds while a prisoner of war in Germany, was born in 1895. He was the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Patterson, of 40 Cleveland Square, Hyde Park. Educated at Berkhamsted and Eastbourne College, he distinguished himself as an athlete, and won the swimming championship at Eastbourne when he was sixteen. Within a few days of the commencement of the war he enlisted in the H.A.C., and went out to France at the end of 1914. Returning invalided to England in 1915, he was appointed to a commission in the West Yorkshire Regiment, and was subsequently attached to the R.F.C. He went back to the front in 1916, and became actively engaged in bombing operations, in which he did ‘excellent work.’ He was brought down on September 17 by a numerous German squadron, and died of his wounds at Osnabrück.
Second-Lieutenant Robert Shirley Osmaston, M.C., was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Francis P. Osmaston, of Stoneshill, Limpsfield, and grandson of Mr. John Osmaston, late of Osmaston Manor, Derby. He was born in 1894, and educated at Earleywood Preparatory School, Ascot, and Winchester College (Kingsgate House), where he gained the gold medal for gymnastics in 1912. He had a short course of agricultural training after leaving Winchester, and when the war broke out enlisted as a private in the U.P.S. Brigade. In May, 1915, he obtained his commission in the Royal Sussex Regiment, and went to the front on December 1, 1915. Early this year (1916) he was an instructor of Lewis gun training, and later acting-adjutant of his brigade, and was attached to brigade head quarters learning staff work. In April he conducted a raid into the enemy trenches very successfully and without any casualties, and was shortly afterwards awarded the Military Cross. In July he transferred to the R.F.C., and served as observer till he was killed.
Lieutenant Edward Mervyn Carre, R.F.C., who was killed in October, 1916, aged twenty-two, was the youngest son of the Rev. Arthur A. Carre and Mrs. Carre, of the Rectory, Smarden, Kent. Educated at Christ’s Hospital from 1903 to 1910, he left as Deputy Grecian and entered the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and in 1912 matriculated at Leeds University, whence he obtained an Honour Degree in Classics. On the outbreak of war he joined the Artists’ Rifles, and served abroad, receiving a commission in the Lincolnshire Regiment in March, 1915. Being promoted Lieutenant, he was transferred to the R.F.C. in May, 1916. His commanding officer writes: ‘We are all very sorry to lose your son. He has done very good work since joining the squadron, and was really one of my best observers.’ His eldest brother, Maurice Tennant Carre, Australian Infantry, was killed at Lone Pine on September 2, 1915. Two remaining brothers, Captain M. H. Carre, M.C., and Second-Lieutenant G. T. Carre, are serving in the Royal West Kent Regiment, and have both been twice wounded.
The Roll of Honour grows as the days pass. Hero follows hero. To give the names of all who have made the supreme sacrifice is impossible; neither can we hope to find fitting words of gratitude and praise.