Category: Aviation Historian

Having recently celebrated St Patrick’s Day we would like to devote this week’s blogpost to celebrate and commemorate the thousands of doughty Irishmen and women who served in the RAF since 1918. They took part in countless air battles during the First and Second World Wars and wherever they went, the Irish earned a reputation for courage, fortitude and good humour.

In August 1914, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declared war on Germany. Some 6,000 Irish volunteers served with the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force and 500 lost their lives.

Irishmen made excellent fighter pilots, and a remarkable 495 aerial victories were credited to only 39 Irish ‘aces’. One was Major Joseph Cruess Callaghan of County Dublin, a Sopwith Dolphin pilot who died as he had lived, and was last seen attacking 25 German fighters single-handed. Another was Captain George McElroy, also from County Dublin, who destroyed 46 enemy aircraft while flying S.E.5As. The most successful pilots were Victoria Cross winners Major James McCudden and Major Edward Mannock; two working-class heroes from the Irish diaspora in England credited with 57 and 61 victories respectively. All four were killed in July 1918.

By the end of the war, flying training schools were operating in Ireland where students learned to fly using the methods pioneered by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Smith Barry; another gifted airman of Irish heritage. Bases were also established around the coast from which British and American aircraft mounted anti-submarine patrols.

In January 1919, the Anglo-Irish War began. Two and half years of bitter fighting followed, but in December 1921, a treaty was signed which created a 26-county Irish Free State and left six counties of Ulster under British rule. During the Second World War, Southern Ireland remained neutral, but over 15,000 Irish people from both jurisdictions volunteered for the RAF. They served in all Commands and in all theatres, and 1,300 became casualties.

Three posthumous Victoria Crosses were awarded to Irish pilots. The RAF’s first VC of the war went to Flying Officer Donald Garland, from Wicklow, for his part in the attack on the vital Veldwezelt bridge in Belgium in May 1940. Donald Garland’s VC is held by the RAF Museum and a Fairey Battle light bomber, similar to the one he flew, is on display at the London site. Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, a Tipperary man serving in the Fleet Air Arm, won the VC leading six Fairey Swordfish in a doomed attack on the German capital ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen during the ‘Channel Dash’ of February 1942. Lastly, Flight Lieutenant David Lord from Cork earned his VC at the controls of a burning Douglas Dakota during a resupply flight during the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944.

During the war, RAF bases were established in Northern Ireland from which Coastal Command squadrons worked tirelessly to help keep Britain’s vital sea lanes open during the Battle of the Atlantic. The province would later endure 30 years of sectarian conflict, beginning in October 1968 and ending in April 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Throughout ‘The Troubles’ the RAF welcomed recruits from both sides of the border and it continues to do so today.

In the RAF’s Centenary year, we think that it is perhaps good to reflect on the Irish people who have brought ‘a touch of the green’ to the RAF’s blue.

As a new member of the team I was thrilled and intrigued to find out that at the new RAF Museum exhibition ‘First 100 Years of the RAF‘, which is opening this summer, the audience will be greeted by the silhouettes of the most extraordinary individuals who devoted their lives to the Royal Air Force.

On arrival visitors will discover the story of the RAF through the stories of incredible men and women. As today is International Women’s Day, I would like to talk about three pioneering women, who pushed their boundaries to the benefit of Royal Air Force.

Dame Fanny Lucy Houston was a professional dancer, political activist, suffragette and aviation pioneer, who was also ‘the saviour of the Spitfire’. Lady Houston was renowned as an extremely
strong character and for being incredibly forward-thinking. Her main contribution to aviation was the generous donation of £100.000 that ensured British participation and winning of the Schneider Trophy seaplane race in 1931. This in turn facilitated the significant development of the Supermarine Spitfire and Rolls-Royce Merlin engine before the Second World War. I believe Lady Houston can be considered as the perfect example of a shero of her time with strong principles and a genuine faith in human progress.

The second individual in my list is Beatrice ‘Tilly’ Shilling, born on this day in 1909 – a brilliant aeronautical engineer and an expert motor racer. Beatrice joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough and served as an aero-engineer for 43 years, including the period of the Second World War. She was highly respected by her colleagues for her outstanding intellect, practical skills and personal integrity. She invented ‘Miss Shilling’s orifice’ or simply the ‘Tilly orifice’, a restrictor that prevented the engine stalling in fighter planes such as the Hurricane and Spitfire, when they were going nose-down to begin a dive, and in the process saved a huge number of pilots’ lives. Beatrice’s life is a powerful reminder of the equality of men and women in the field of science and technology. And the fact that a woman can also be an ingenious inventor and engineer.

And finally, I would like to introduce to you the first female pilot of Royal Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Julie Ann Gibson, who was a RAF engineering officer. She applied the first day after the RAF started to recruit female pilots in 1989 and graduated in 1991 as the first female regular office in the RAF. Julie was born into a military family and learnt to fly while attending City, University of London. Her story is a fascinating demonstration of how dreams come true due to your faith and determination. During her time in the Royal Air Force she became a Captain on Lockheed Hercules aircraft based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire from where she delivered personnel and equipment all over the world.

Her empowering words could serve as a great motto for all those incredible female individuals who pushed the boundaries and shone beyond expectations and serve as a call to action for all women on International Women’s Day: ‘If you have a dream or a passion don’t let anybody put you off and don’t let anybody say you can’t do something because you are a girl’.