John Aidan Liddell

John Aidan Liddell VC, MC (3 August 1888 – 31 August 1915) was an English pilot and 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.

Details

Liddell was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire and Balliol College, Oxford, where he took the Honours Course in Zoology.

He was 26 years old, and a captain in the 3rd Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), British Army, and Royal Flying Corps during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 31 July 1915, while flying reconnaissance over Ostend-Bruges-Ghent, Belgium, Liddell was severely wounded in his right thigh. This caused momentary unconsciousness, but by great effort he recovered partial control of his machine when it had dropped nearly 3,000 feet and succeeded, although fired on, in completing the course and brought the plane back into the Allied lines.

The control wheel and throttle control were smashed as was part of the undercarriage and cockpit, but the machine and life of the observer were saved.

Liddell died of his wounds a month later at De Panne, Flanders, Belgium, on 31 August 1915, aged 27.^[1]

A brass In Memoriam tablet was erected to Aidan Liddell in the Scottish Naval and Military Residence, Edinburgh. The inscription on the brass tablet runs as follows^[2]:

A memorial to him was also erected at Balliol College, on the west wall of the Chapel passage.^[3] His VC is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.

References

• Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• VCs of the First World War - Air VCs (P G Cooksley, 1999)

External links

• Location of grave and VC medal (Hampshire)
• History of Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders