2nd Lt H.M.C. Ledger

[michaeldr]

Re-reading ‘Agents of Empire’ for another thread, I came across a couple of fleeting references to this officer. One relates how Feinberg, a Nili agent, was arrested disguised as a Turkish Officer near El Arish whilst trying to reach the British in Egypt. He was taken back to Beersheva and held in prison - “It is characteristic of the man’s nature that while in prison, almost daily expecting a death sentence, he wrote a beautiful poem in honour of Lt. Ledger, a British aviator, cowardly shot by a Tarabin Bedouin, when he was endeavouring to set fire to his aeroplane which crashed near Beersheva (This poem was sent to G.S.I., G.H.Q. by Capt. R. Macrury in the fall of 1918).”

A search of the CWGC site suggests that the aviator was almost certainly

Name: LEDGER, HORACE MARTIN CAPON

Initials: H M C

Nationality: Indian

Rank: Second Lieutenant

Regiment: Indian Army Reserve of Officers

Secondary Unit Text: attd. French Seaplane Flight

Age: 31

Date of Death: 22/12/1915

Additional information: Croix de Guerre with Palms (France). Legion D'Honneur. Son of Horace and Kathleen Ella Ledger; husband of Ellinor Ledger, of The Warren, Witham, Essex.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 57

Cemetery: JERUSALEM MEMORIAL

[biographical details picked up on the web]

2nd Lt H M C Ledger; born 1884, the son of Horace and Kathleen Ella Ledger, and husband of Ellinor Ledger was commissioned in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers, and served initially in a Regiment of the Egyptian Army before training as an Observer in the Royal Flying Corps. In 1915 he was attached to the French Seaplane Squadron in Palestine. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre in Nov 1915 and twice mentioned in the Commanding Admiral's 'Ordre du Jour'. He was shot down and killed near Beersheba on 22 Dec 1915.

Does anyone have any more details on Lt. Ledger and has anyone seen/heard of the poem?

Regards

Michael D.R.

[michaeldr]

Just for the record I will put up the other ref to Lt Ledger, which may also be of interest

“…..the valuable report made by the British Lieutenant Ledger as the result of an air reconnaissance carried out on 25th October 1915 in a French hydroavion piloted by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Destrem. This flight enabled a detailed sketch to be made, showing the course of the railway from near Ramleh to Beersheba. Although an isolated air reconnaissance could not possibly be expected to reveal the traffic capacity of the railway, the result of this reconnaissance is one more example of the bold and efficient co-operation with British forces of the small nucleus of the French Air Force furnished to support the Allied defence of the Canal.”

Regards

Michael D.R.

[Dolphin]

Michael

Unfortunately, 'The War in the Air' Volume V, has little to say about this phase of operations. Of course, it is the British history, and 2Lt Ledger was involved in a French operation. The relevant section reads:

"The two remaining serviceable [british] seaplanes continued to operate, from the Rabenfels, [an ex-German cargo steamer pressed into British service as a seaplane tender and later re-named Raven II] from off the coast of Palestine. By April [1915] they had been reinforced by three additional French seaplanes, enough to ensure a limited number of strategical reconnaissances."

The history is then quiet about aerial activity over the Sinai front until January 1916.

This doesn't help you much, other than to perhaps eliminate a direction of enquiry. I wonder if anyone has the French Official History?

Regards

Gareth

[michaeldr]

Gareth,

Many thanks for troubling to look it up anyway

Regards

Michael D.R.

[michaeldr]

I've just been reminded of this nearly sixteen-year-old thread 

and from further scratching around the web can now add

https://www.our-families.info/individual.php?pid=I4388&ged=Osborne.ged

which includes a photograph and a transcript of his medal card

[michaeldr]

On 11/10/2004 at 18:26, michaeldr said:

(This poem was sent to G.S.I., G.H.Q. by Capt. R. Macrury in the fall of 1918).

This must be a ref to 

Captain E. MacRury, Spec. List (Inteligence) (MiD twice)

Cavalier of the Order of the Crown of Italy, Order of the Nile 4^th Class

[graduated Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, 1907]

[michaeldr]

Details of Lt Ledger's fatal flight can be read here https://aegeanairwar.com/articles/the-french-seaplane-squadron-at-the-dardanelles

[the author is a member of this forum]