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Remembered Today:

Lt. Moscwell, 47 sqn RFC


Biggles

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Good morning Gents,

 

Does anyone have any information on this chap?  I don't know any other details at all.  I have a photo of him with other pilots of 47 sqn RFC in Salonika with a BE12.  He is second form left, standing.

Thanks in advance.

 

Cheerio,

Caleb

8656648335_bf8b4f5e77_b.jpg

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7 hours ago, Biggles said:

Good morning Gents,

 

Does anyone have any information on this chap?  I don't know any other details at all.  I have a photo of him with other pilots of 47 sqn RFC in Salonika with a BE12.  He is second form left, standing.

Thanks in advance.

 

Cheerio,

Caleb

8656648335_bf8b4f5e77_b.jpg

 

I would say the second name on the photo is Maxwell.   Hopefully that should help in finding your man.

 

Edit:  Could this be Sub Lt JE Maxwell RNAS KIA 30.3.17?   Can anyone make out the serial of the machine?

Edited by pete-c
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There was a Lt A (Alexander) Maxwell, 1st Royal Scots and RFC, at Salonika; he seems to have been with 17 Squadron though.  Could your "47" be "17"?  His entry in Airhistory provides very little information but confirms 17 Squadron

 

See https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/30270

and

https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/30271

 

and via http://airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html

 

Piers

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Captain Ernest Vincent Longinotto was also with 17 Squadron

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Ditto Lt Acheson Gosford Goulding (Canadian)

... and 2/Lt / Lt Alexander Noel David

 

Which leaves Ross, for whom I can see no obvious candidates on airhistory - but a trawl of the casualty forms might throw him up

Edited by pierssc
adding Ross
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What I read as "Ross" is Captain Elliot Archibald De Pass, 17 Squadron.

 

We could probably work out a rough date for the photo.

Edited by pierssc
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42 minutes ago, pierssc said:

Captain Ernest Vincent Longinotto was also with 17 Squadron

 

Good sleuthing Piers.   I was stumped as to this man's name.   17 Sqn could also make sense as this image also appears elsewhere on the web with the caption -  'Possibly 17 Sqn'.

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I should have Googled the picture to start with!

 

http://aeroescadrille.blogspot.com/2018/03/canadian-ace-acheson-gosford-goulding.html

 

The same guys turn up here too:

47 Sqn RFC at the French airfield; Florina

 

Edited by pierssc
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46 minutes ago, pierssc said:

I should have Googled the picture to start with!

 

http://aeroescadrille.blogspot.com/2018/03/canadian-ace-acheson-gosford-goulding.html

 

The same guys turn up here too:

47 Sqn RFC at the French airfield; Florina

 

 

Aha!   The image I found didn't feature names as per this aeroescadrille image.   Regarding the Florina image, it would seem that Maxwell is second from right - the taller man wearing the pith helmet.  Assuming that the chap standing fourth from the left is perhaps an unnamed Air Mechanic, the last two names are in the wrong order - Thomas, Maxwell - should perhaps be Maxwell, Thomas?

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Pete-c, click on the picture I posted and you should get to the Flickr account where I found it.  There are some one other photos in the same series nearby.  They have very similar reference numbers.  Plus some others which don’t seem as official - a very interesting collection.

 

edit: on trying this on my ipad the link didn’t allow me to see the other pictures... you can get there by clicking on the account holder’s name, and then going to “albums” and selecting the album “WW1”

 

I haven’t tried matching up faces with names yet - may have a look this afternoon.

Edited by pierssc
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Hello Gentlemen,

 

Thank you for your answers.  When I first saw the photos, they were listed as 47 sqn, but upon furthur study and examination, I believe they do belong to 17 sqn.  I have three images all of the same squadron, they are in the Air War gallery on this forum.  In the larger group photo, his name looks like Maxwell, but on the second, not so.  May be the bad hand writing!  Any more help in pin-pointing Maxwell will be much appreciated.  I do not believe that his uniform looks RNAS.  

I also have had a lot of trouble working out who is who in the larger group photo.  There is an extra person!  

Thanks again, chaps.

 

Cheers,

Caleb

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1 hour ago, Biggles said:

Hello Gentlemen,

 

Thank you for your answers.  When I first saw the photos, they were listed as 47 sqn, but upon furthur study and examination, I believe they do belong to 17 sqn.  I have three images all of the same squadron, they are in the Air War gallery on this forum.  In the larger group photo, his name looks like Maxwell, but on the second, not so.  May be the bad hand writing!  Any more help in pin-pointing Maxwell will be much appreciated.  I do not believe that his uniform looks RNAS.  

I also have had a lot of trouble working out who is who in the larger group photo.  There is an extra person!  

Thanks again, chaps.

 

Cheers,

Caleb

 

Biggles,

 

With regard to the group with the Vickers aircraft - working from the left we have: possibly Hemming? - De Pass (first left in the first image) - Longinotto (third left in the first image) - then an unidentified man - David (crouching in the first image) - Goulding (the man grasping the prop in the first image) - McBean? - which leaves the last two.  I would say the man wearing the pith helmet is Maxwell, a good match for the man second left in the first image, going by height alone.   Which leaves the man nearest the aircraft - Thomas?   As I mention in my last post, the person responsible for annotating the image seems to have got these last two men mixed up.

Judging by his detective work on the other men, I'm sure Piers will come back soon with details on Hemming? McBean and Thomas.  

 

Good hunting,

Peter.

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I think in the second photo, the list of names ends with “Maxwell & [blank]”

 

I enjoy this sort of detective work but - before I spend more time looking up people Caleb may not be interested in - what exactly is your interest in Maxwell, Caleb, and why do you think we haven’t identified him?  I don’t think there’s any doubt that that is his surname - forming an ‘x’ by using back to back ‘c’s isn’t uncommon, that’s one way I was taught at school.   My conclusions were the same as the aeroescadrille post, reached indepenently, and while I concede that it is conceivable that he might be another Maxwell (my research into 5 Squadron has revealed that there were an extraordinary number of people with the same or very similar surnames in that squadron at the same time, so the same might apply to 17), I looked through all but one of the casualty forms for “Maxwell” before finding one with a link to Salonika and I’ve just checked the last one and we can rule that out.  We’ve identified everyone else in the first photo and have a second to compare it with.  Whatever the exact status of the first group there were people of those names who were at least nominally members of 17 Squadron at the right time so the chances of his being Alexander Maxwell are pretty good, wouldn’t you say?   I have given links to his casualty card (which details his movements overseas) and his airhistory entries which I assume (I’m on the ipad just now and can’t open the spreadsheet) will give his AIR 76 file reference at Kew so there should be plenty there for you to go on to reconstruct his career if that’s what you want.  I don’t want to deprive you of all the fun of research!

 

Piers

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Biggles

Just to reinforce the conclusions from Piers and Peter I have waded through the Daily Summaries of Work (War Diaries if you like) for 17 Squadron RFC for Sep 1916 to Sep 1917 which record daily flights, missions, pilots and observers names and aircraft serials, and can safely agree that all the names given to you are members of 17 Squadron, "A" Flight to be precise, though they do crop up in other flights occasionally, all flying from various aerodromes but chiefly Amberkoj, Lahana, Florina and Salonika Lieutenant A Maxwell RFC featuring large amongst them.

 

These files are at Kew  AIR1/2376/226/12 and AIR1/2377/226/12 later dates in 1918 are also available should you be interested

 

Tony

Edited by MerchantOldSalt
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Dear Fellows,

 

Thank you all for your input, it is much appreciated. 

I have no doubt about his name being Maxwell.  I was just confirming that he is indeed Lt. Alexander Maxwell, 1st Royal Scots.  My family have a long Scottish history, so I'm glad to hear he's a Scotsman!  The Casualty Form was very interesting, thanks Piers.  Military history and research is most surely my favourite pastime, but I do not know a lot of the research sites you guys know.  'Google' did not come up with any Lt. Maxwell RFC, when I tried searching.  So if I don't manage myself, the forum is the best place to ask for assistance in research.

Thanks again, Gents.

 

Cheerio,

Caleb

 

P.S.  That is the same Flickr account were I found these photos, notice how they say '47 Sqn RFC'?  That's how came to believe it was 47 sqn, but obviously that person is wrong.

Edited by Biggles
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Ah, well, if you have a look at the comments section to the posting on Flickr from which you got the first photo, you will see that they had made the 17 Squadron connection, AND named all the people, a year ago!  Always worth looking beyond the headline.

 

Still glad that we agree though!  And it’s a nice photo.

 

Edited by pierssc
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Funny.... I did some research on 17 and 47 sqn aircraft. 

No. 17 Squadron

RAF BE2c (Jul-16 to Jun-18)

Bristol Scout (Jul-16 to Sep-16)

RAF BE12a (Dec-16 to Sep-18)

Spad VII (Jul-17 to Dec-17)

Nieuport 17 (Aug-17 to Dec-17)

RAF SE5a (Dec-17 to Apr-18)

Armstrong Whitworth FK8 (Mar-18 onwards)

Airco DH9 (Aug-18 onwards)

 

No. 47 Squadron

RAF BE12 (Oct-16 to Apr-18)

Airco DH2 (Feb-17 to Jan-18)

Armstrong Whitworth FK3 (Feb-17 to Jul-18)

Vickers FB19 Mk2 (Jun-17 to Apr-18)

RAF BE12a (Sep-17 to Feb-18)

RAF BE2e (Oct-17 to Apr-18)

RAF SE5a (Nov-17 to Apr-18)

Bristol M1C (Feb-18 to May-18)

Armstrong Whitworth FK8 (Mar-18 onwards)

Airco DH9 (Aug-18 onwards)

 

In the group photo, there are FB.19's in the background, but 17 sqn never had those.  I'm not arguing that the photo is from 47 sqn, but it's just a detection I made :)

 

Cheerio,

Caleb

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Dear All,

Perhaps HERRING (not Henning)...?

Kindest regards,

Kim.

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