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- No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps during the Great War -


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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps



   During the course of the war No.4 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps participated in the following battles:




Want to know more about No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps?


There are:73 items tagged No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.


Those known to have served with

No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps

during the Great War 1914-1918.

  • Atkinson James Morgan. Lt.
  • Cox George Benjamin.
  • Dodsworth Anthony James Innes. 2nd Lt.
  • Dowding Hugh Caswell Tremenheere. Group Capt.

All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps from other sources.


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  • 18th April 2024

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      World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery
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226536

Lt. James Morgan Atkinson 4 Sqdn.

My grandfather James Morgan served as an observer in No 4 Squadron of the RFC and was based at Abeele Aaerodrome in West Flanders in 1917. He and his pilot Wilfred Morgan were shot down in RE8 Plane Serial No B5040 behind enemy lines near Ypres on 12 Oct 1917.

Wilfred Morgan died in a POW camp of his wounds. My grandfather - Morgan as he was known - survived in a POW camp in Baden and Heidelberg until his repatriation in August 1918. His gunshot wound in the back and hip severed his sciatic nerve and he suffered paralysis in his foot. He laterally had several amputations of his leg and ended up with a wooden leg below his knee.

My granddad died in 1970 when I was 8 years old. He never spoke to any of us about his experiences but I do remember there was a picture of the gravestone of his pilot Wilfred Morgan on the mantelpiece on their small holding farm in Clonmore, Co Carlow in the Republic of Ireland. My aunt has spent many years researching our family tree and has produced a little booklet about Granddad's war years. One burning ambition is to try and find out more about his RFC time. He had started in WWI in the ASC Divisional Train - he loved horses.

David




185828

Group Capt. Hugh Caswell Tremenheere "Stuffy" Dowding

My Stepfather, Hugh Dowding, was educated at his father's preparatory school at Moffat and then Winchester, after which he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1899. Failing to gain a commission in the Royal Engineers, he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery, being posted to Gibraltar, then to Ceylon and Hong Kong. In 1904 be was posted to No 7 Mountain Artillery Battery – NWF, in India. From January 1912 he attended Army Staff College. In 1913 he joined the Garrison Artillery on the Isle of Wight

He learnt to fly at the Vickers Flying School, Brooklands, gaining his RAeC Certificate (No 711), on the day he passed out from Camberley, after 1 hour 40 minutes. At the Central Flying School his instructor was Capt. John Salmond. Having gained his 'Wings', he was added to the RFC Reserve List returning to his Garrison Artillery duties on the Isle of Wight. In 1929, following the escalation of trouble in the area, he was sent to Palestine to undertake an inquiry into the need and form of possible re-inforcements for the area.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914 he was Commandant - Dover Assembly Point and later that month he was posted as a Pilot to No 7 Sqn RFC, transferring to No 6 Sqn on the 6th of October 1914. On the 18th of November he was transferred to GSO3, HQ RFC and on the 8th December 1914 he was appointed Flight Commander of No 9 Sqn RFC. On the 27th of January 1915 he became Flight Commander of No 6 Sqn RFC. On the 4th of March 1915 he was appointed Officer i/c Wireless Flight, No 4 Sqn RFC and from 17th March 1915 he became Officer Commanding No 9 Sqn/Wireless Experimental Establishment RFC. From July he was Officer Commanding No 16 Sqn and on the 1st of February the following year was posted to Farnborough to become Officer Commanding, 7th Wing RFC. On the 22nd June he became Officer Commanding, 9th (HQ) Wing RFC. On New Year's day 1917 he was promoted to Officer Commanding, Southern Group Command and on the 5th of August 1917, he became Brigadier-General Commanding, Southern Training Brigade. In 1918 he was Brigadier-General (Administration), HQ No 4 Area. and then Brigadier-General (Administration), HQ North-Eastern Area. In January 1919 he became Brigadier-General (Administration) York, HQ North-Western Area and in June, Brigadier-General (Administration), HQ Northern Area. On the 1st of August 1919 he became Group Capt (Administration), HQ Northern Area and was Re-Seconded to the RAF for further two years.On the 1st of September he became Temporary AOC, Northern Area and on the 18th of October 1919, Officer Commanding, No 16 Group.

Between the wars he was Officer Commanding, No 1 Group then Chief Staff Officer, Inland Area. In August 1924 he became Chief Staff Officer, HQ Iraq Command. In May 1926 he became Director of Training ad in December 1929 AOC, Fighting Area, Air Defence of Great Britain.

On 28 January 1936 he was one of three officers representing the Air Council at the funeral of HM King George V. On the 14 July 1936 he became AOC in C, Fighter Command.

As Air Member for Research and Development in the 1930's he was in a position to oversee the development of the eight gun fighters, Hurricane and Spitfire, but even more importantly his previous experience in wireless experiments gave him an excellent insight into possibilities of it's use in the detection of aircraft. He was able to take these preparations to their logical conclusion when given command of the newly formed Fighter Command in July 1936. He immediately set about developing a system able to make best use of his limited resources and it was this system as much as anything that ensured success in 1940. He established the coastal chain of radar stations (then known as RDF), but the success of radar really lay in the reporting and control system he set up which allowed aircraft to be placed in the right place at the right height in time to meet the threat.

During the Battle of Britain his most difficult problem was the conflict between AVM Leigh-Mallory and AVM Park over tactics in which he supported both Group Commanders and saw that both sets of tactics had their advantages but that they were not necessarily suitable in both situations. From 1938 Dowding was advised of five separate retirement dates, but each one was rescinded for various reasons, therefore, his replacement in November 1940 as AOC in C Fighter Command, when flush with success in the Battle of Britain was seen as a snub by many, although it had in fact been planned.

A Whiting






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