David Lord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony Lord VC DFC RAF (18 October 1913 – 19 September 1944) was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Lord was born St Mary's Avenue, Cork, Ireland.
Contents |
[edit] Details
He was 30 years old, and a flight lieutenant in 271 Squadron, Royal Air Force during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
On 19 September 1944 at Arnhem, the Netherlands, the British 1st Airborne Division were in desperate need of supplies. Flight Lieutenant Lord, flying Dakota KG374 through intense enemy anti-aircraft fire was twice hit and had one engine burning. He managed to drop his supplies, but at the end of the run found that there were two containers remaining. Although he knew that one of his wings might collapse at any moment he nevertheless made a second run to drop the last supplies, then ordered his crew to bail out. A few seconds later the Dakota crashed in flames with its pilot.
[edit] Memorials
- Oosterbek War Cemetery, Arnhem Plot 4, row B Grave 5.
- Wrexham Memorial Hall, Wrexham, Wales.
- A Vickers VC-10 Serial 'XR810' of 10 Squadron was named 'David Lord VC' between 1967 and 2005.
- A Douglas Dakota at the RAF Museum Cosford is painted as KG374 coded YS-DM the aircraft flown by Flight Lieutenant Lord DFC on his final mission.
[edit] The medal
The medal is part of the Lord Ashcroft VC Collection [1]
[edit] References
Listed in order of publication year
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (1981, 1988 and 1997)
- The VCs of Wales and the Welsh Regiments (W. Alister Williams, 1984)
- The Irish Sword (Brian Clarke 1986)
- Irelands VCs ISBN 1-899243-00-3 (Dept of Economic Development 1995)
- Scotland's Forgotten Valour (Graham Ross, 1995)
- British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)
- Frank Cassidy
[edit] The medal
The medal is part of the Lord Ashcroft VC Collection [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Flt. Lt. David S.A. Lord VC. DFC.
- VC at Arnhem (Arnhem operation details and photos)
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Heroic histories go under the hammer
John Vincent recounts the tales of courage and self-sacrifice behind the auction of three VCs
A PIONEER pilot, his leg smashed by enemy gunfire, manages a wave and a faint smile as he is carried away on a stretcher after being cut from his wrecked plane.
His bravado for the photographer masked a feat of the greatest heroism, and created one of the most memorable images of the First World War. Captain Aidan Liddell died of his wounds a month later. But his 30-minute flight and faultless landing after his RE5 was attacked by a German biplane over Belgium in 1915 earned him a Victoria Cross.
Now his medal, with posthumous awards to two heroes of the Second World War, are to be sold at auction. One was to Lieutenant Alec Horwood, whose three-day assault on Japanese strongholds in Burma ended in victory, but at the expense of his life. The other was to Flight Lieutenant David "Lumme" Lord. Over Arnhem in 1944 he remained at the controls of his burning Dakota in an effort to save his crew, completing two supply drops before ordering his men to bale out seconds before the aircraft broke up.
Captain Liddell's VC and other medals, including a Military Cross awarded for his bravery with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the bloody trench warfare of late 1914, are expected to fetch up to £100,000 at Spink & Son in London on July 17. A similar price is expected for "Lumme" Lord's VC and other awards, including a DFC for his work in the Western Desert, where his slow, virtually unarmed Dakota was shot down by two Me.109s, and in Burma, where he flew numerous unescorted missions in support of Orde Wingate's Chindits. Lieutenant Horwood's VC and his DCM, for escaping from captivity near Antwerp in 1940, should fetch up to £80,000.
The heroics of Captain "Oozy" Liddell, so nicknamed by fellow pupils at Stonyhurst College because he was "always messing about with chemicals or engines", followed a routine patrol over Ostend, Bruges and Ghent on July 31, 1915, when a burst of fire ripped through the rear cockpit and smashed into his right thigh, exposing the bone. The impact and shock rendered him unconscious. His RE5 lurched forward and rolled on to its back.
After plunging 3,000ft, Captain Liddell regained consciousness and instinctively righted the plane despite half the controls being shot away and the undercarriage damaged. Declining the choice of a forced landing behind enemy lines and quick medical attention, he decided to make for Allied lines and freedom.
Lieutenant Horwood's VC, the first to be awarded on the Burma front, came when he was attached to the 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, at Kyauchaw between January 18 and 20, 1944. According to the official citation, he led his last attack "with such calm, resolute bravery that the enemy was reached and, while standing up in the wire, directing and leading the men with complete disregard to the enemy fire which was then at point-blank range, he was mortally wounded". His combination of VC and DCM is unique to the British Army.
Flight Lieutenant Lord's VC was for "supreme valour" over Arnhem on September 19, 1944. His Dakota was twice hit when three minutes from the dropping zone but he carried on regardless. But two containers remained on board and, mindful of how important they might be to the 1st Airborne and Operation Market Garden, he rejoined the supply aircraft for a second run, aware that the collapse of his starboard wing was imminent.
In the Spink militaria sale the above three Victoria Crosses fetched a total of £304,750. from The Times, 18 July 1997
This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission.
