With a Smile and a Wave

The Life of Captain Aidan Liddell VC MC

Peter Daybell

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Aviation
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781844151608
• eBook ISBN: 9781473820838
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

During the late summer of 1915 Captain Aidan Liddell's gallant exploits filled many newspaper columns and he was feted as a national hero. Already decorated for bravery while serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, and it was as a pilot that he attracted national acclaim.Badly wounded over enemy occupied Belgium, Liddell lost consciousness as his two-seater RE5 aircraft was raked by machine gun fire, and plunged out of control towards the ground. Despite terrible injuries and the extensive damage to his machine, he somehow recovered from an inverted dive and flew on for a further half an hour to the safety of the Allied lines, so saving his observer and a valuable aircraft.For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross, but did not live to receive Britain's highest gallantry award and succumbed to his wounds a month later. With a Smile and a Wave provides a vivid picture of the squalor and danger of war, the backbreaking hardship of trench life and of the challenges of pioneer air fighting. It draws extensively on Captain Liddell's own letters and diaries and exposes the character and courage of the man in his own often compelling and moving words. But it is a story not just of war, but of growing up in a devout and prosperous family, of a Jesuit education at Stonyhurst College, and of Edwardian Oxford before the Great War. It portrays the privileged lifestyle of the English country gentleman, and describes how a very close knit and patriotic family dealt with the adversity of war.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction Requiescat in Pace

Chapter One From Benwell to Basingstoke

Chapter Two Stonyhurst College

Chapter Three Science and Spain

Chapter Four A Gentleman Philosopher

Chapter Five Peter at Balliol

Chapter Six The Young Squire

Chapter Seven War

Chapter Eight France and the 93rd

Chapter Nine On the Marne and the Aisne

Chapter Ten To Flanders and Le Maisnil

Chapter Eleven First Ypres

Chapter Twelve ‘Plugstreet’ and the Middlesex

Chapter Thirteen Trench Warfare

Chapter Fourteen To Christmas and Beyond

Chapter Fifteen Floods and Salmon Fishing

Chapter Sixteen England Again

Chapter Seventeen Per Ardua Ad Astra

Chapter Eighteen The Journey Home

Appendices

1. Letters to the Liddell Family 1915

2. Notes on Persons Mentioned in the Text

3. Aidan Liddell’s Medals

Select Bibliography

References

Index

Acknowledgements

My interest in the First World War began in 1965 at Stonyhurst College when I read Robert Graves’s Goodbye to All That and Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. A seed was sown then which was reawakened in 1995 by Professor Brian Bond, when I studied the Great War with him at King’s College London. Shortly afterwards I came across Aidan Liddell’s papers in the Public Record Office, and was greatly moved by what I read. An interest grew into an idea for a book and my research began in earnest in 1998. Since then I have been assisted along the way by scores of organisations and individuals without whose generous cooperation and wholehearted support With a Smile and a Wave could not have been written.

First I must acknowledge the enthusiastic support and generous hospitality of two members of the Liddell family. Aidan’s niece Gillian Clayton, and his great nephew Mark Liddell have together made available to me a wealth of unique family material, without which this book could certainly not have been written. They have followed my slow progress with undiminished enthusiasm, and a great deal of patience. I am particularly grateful to Gillian for her permission to quote from ‘Uncle Aidan’s’ letters and diaries and to Mark for the extended loan of the wonderful family albums. I must also express my gratitude to my friend John Mulholland for his advice and encouragement throughout this project. John is the expert on the seven Stonyhurst VC’s and the extended loan of his Liddle file, his dozen bound volumes of the Stonyhurst Magazine, and a large selection of other books has also been immensely helpful

I am grateful for the enthusiastic support of Fr Joe Marren, then the Parish Priest of Our Lady and St Cuthbert, Prudoe and for his help in putting me in touch with a number of local historians and researchers in Northumberland, including Mrs Anne Fettes and Alastair Fraser. At Stonyhurst College I wish to acknowledge the assistance of David Knight, the Archivist and Editor of the Stonyhurst Magazine, the late Fr Freddy Turner who was the previous Archivist, Tom Muir, and Major John Cobb. Balliol College has been equally supportive, and I am grateful for the support and assistance of Dr John Jones, the Vice-Master and Archivist, and of Alan Tadiello, the Assistant Librarian. Following on with the Oxford connection, I would like to thank Mr TC Hartley for permission to consult and quote from the papers of his grandfather Sir Harold Hartley, now lodged at Churchill College Cambridge. My thanks too to Alan Kucia, the Head Archivist at the Churchill Archives Centre. I must also acknowledge the assistance of the Oxford Union and the Newman Society.

I have also contacted and visited a large number of libraries, museums and research organisations in various parts of the country, including the North East and Hampshire. Without exception, my queries have been dealt with speed, accuracy and courtesy. Help was given by the Hexham Library, the Newcastle City Library, the Tyne and Wear Archive Service, the Northumberland Record Service, the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society, the Willis Museum Basingstoke, the Winchester Museum Service and the Hampshire Record Office Winchester. The British Library, the Cambridge University Library, the Public Record Office/National Archive, the Imperial War Museum, the National Army Museum and the RAF Museum have also been of great assistance. A particular thank you must also go to RHQ of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and in Stirling Castle, and I am most grateful for the support and assistance of Mr Rod Mackenzie in the Regimental Museum.

Thanks must go too to Wing Commander Steve Falla, then commanding No. 7 Sqn Royal Air Force, to Flight Sergeant Bob Funnell the No. 7 Sqn Historian, to Seb Cox at the Air Historical Branch and to several fellow members of Cross and Cockade International, the First World War Aviation Historical Society. These include our President Air Commodore Peter Dye, Paul Leaman, Peter Cooksley, Kevin Kelly, Norman Franks, Mike Pierce and Chaz Bowyer. I must also thank Honest John of the Daily Telegraph who identified Aidan’s Humber motor car, John Tarring of the Humber Register, and Annice Collette, the librarian of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club. My thanks too, to Pen and Sword for agreeing to publish With a Smile and a Wave, and to Ray Bollom who helped me with the preparation of many of the photographs.

The following publishers are thanked for allowing me to quote from published works: Macmillan, Albatros, Greenhill Books, Air Research, Sutton, Orion and Constable. Similarly I acknowlege the permission of AP Watt Ltd on behalf of Lord Tweedsmuir and Jean, Lady Tweedsmuir to quote from John Buchan’s Memory Hold the Door. I am also gratefull to the Regimental Secretary of the Royal Welch Fusiliers for permission to quote from The War the Infantry Knew. Every efford has been made to trace copywrite holders and accurately attribute all source material, but I would be grateful for information that would enable me to correct any errors or omissions.

Finally I must thank by wife Mary and my daugthers Johanna and Nicolas for their extraordinary patience over the last six or so years. It was not their choice to share their husband and father with a long dead hero, but they have all assisted me greatly along the long road to publication.

With A Smile and A Wave

Introduction

Requiescat in Pace

It was Friday 1 October 1915, and the Great War that so many had believed would be over by the end of 1914 was now approaching a second Christmas. In rural Lancashire, far away from the sound of guns, the day dawned bright and clear and the autumn sun lit up the grey stone walls and tall towers of Stonyhurst College and the adjacent Roman Catholic church of St Peter. Set in the Ribble valley between brooding Pendle Hill and Longridge Fell, the old school could be a wet, cold and unwelcoming place. But on this particular day, the weather was kind, and the sometimes austere buildings were softened by sunlight.

Despite the early hour, there was great activity in the church and school, for the Stonyhurst community was preparing to remember and celebrate a fallen son. Few now recognise the name of John Aidan Liddell, but for a brief period in the late summer of 1915, his name was on the lips of a nation hungry for news of the war. His face and story, and a series of remarkable photographs, filled many newspaper columns. Already decorated for bravery as an infantry officer, Aidan Liddell had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and it was as a pilot that his skill and fortitude was to attract national attention. Badly wounded in the thigh while flying deep over enemy-occupied Belgium, Aidan had lost consciousness as his two-seater RE5 aircraft was raked by enemy machine-gun fire. The aircraft turned over and plunged out of control towards the ground, and his subsequent actions were later described as ‘one of the finest feats that has been done in the Corps since the beginning of the war’.¹ Despite terrible injuries, and the extensive damage to his machine, he recovered control of the aircraft and flew on for a further half an hour to the safety of the Allied Belgian airfield at La Panne, where a photographer captured the dramatic scenes for posterity.

For his courage and flying skill in saving the life of his observer, 2nd Lieutenant Roland Peck, and for bringing back a valuable aircraft to the safety of a friendly airfield, Captain John Aidan Liddell MC of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Royal Flying Corps was awarded the Victoria Cross. Presented ‘For Valour’, the VC was the highest military award of the British Empire, and Aidan’s Cross was only the fourth air VC. It was also the second of three crosses awarded to Stonyhurst men in the Great War. No doubt part of the attraction for the British public was that Aidan had seemingly cheated almost certain death and had lived on to be proclaimed a hero lying on a stretcher, cigarette in hand, he had smiled and waved for the camera. However, the celebrations were short-lived, for despite rallying bravely, he died of his wounds a month after the action, and a week after the VC was gazetted. Now, a month on, the boys of his old school gathered to remember him, to pray for the repose of his immortal soul, and no doubt to recall the fifty other old boys who had already given their lives in their country’s service over the preceding fourteen months.

The Liddell family had travelled north the previous day from the family home in Hampshire to attend the memorial service. Those present were Aidan’s father John and mother Emily, his two elder sisters Dorothy and Monica, and his brother Cuthbert (known as Bertie), a Captain in the 15th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents