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This page provides a brief biography of Flight Sergeant Ernest Handley, 6 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, using WW1 service record information and many other sources Flight Sergeant Ernest Handley - 6 Squadron Royal Air Force In 2016, I received an email from a WW1 researcher who lives at Alton Downs in Queensland, informing me of the surprising fact that a local man apparently flew with 6 Squadron during WW1. Up until that time, I was unaware of any 6 Squadron pilot who originated from Australia. In her email, Gloria Kelley told me she was looking into the wartime service details of the forty-eight soldiers whose names were on the Alton Downs War Memorial. When researching the background of the ten local soldiers who never made it back home after the Great War, she discovered that one of them was in fact a Royal Flying Corps pilot who served with 6 Squadron for eight months before being killed in a flying accident in England. After pooling our resources, Gloria and I were able to piece together the brief service life of Sergeant Ernest Handley. In the course of this investigation, I also came to the surprise conclusion that Ernest Handley would have known and worked with my grandfather (Fred Johnstone) during his time with 6 Squadron’s Wireless Flight. Here is the story of one of Australia’s early wartime aviators (see also my NEWS story about him). Ernest Handley was one of Australia’s first wartime aviators. In 1915, twenty-one-year-old Ernest was living in Brisbane. He became a member of the Queensland Volunteer Flying Civilians, an organisation formed by barrister Thomas Macleod to train civilians as aviators prior to them signing up for active service. Note: Though the Australian Flying Corps was formed in 1912, no flight training took place until 1914. In mid 1915, the AFC had several types of aircraft on charge under the name “Mesopotamia Half Flight”, operating in what is today’s Iraq. However, losses proved to be so great that the MHF was disbanded in December 1915, less than six months after it was formed. Despite this setback, 1 Squadron AFC was raised at Point Cook in January 1916 in response to a British request for Australia to raise a full squadron to serve as part of the Royal Flying Corps. Whether Thomas McLeod and his band of aviators would have been able to join the AFC had they remained in Australia instead of sailing to England, is a moot point. Ernest, along with several other members, helped Thomas Macleod build the first flying machine in Queensland, a French Caudron bi-plane reconstructed to incorporate a full-length fuselage, the work being carried out inside a Brisbane church hall. After learning all aspects of aircraft construction, Ernest was taught to fly the completed aircraft. On the 28th December 1915, Thomas McLeod travelled to England with Ernest and six other newly-trained pilots with the intention of enlisting in the Royal Flying Corps. They were following in the footsteps of two other members of the QVFC who left for England three months earlier. Upon his arrival in England on the 26th February 1916, Ernest Handley enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps, stating his skills as ‘Aviator for Miscellaneous’ on a Short Service Attestation form at South Farnborough before being given the rank of 2nd Class Air Mechanic. Two months later, Ernest gained his Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificate and after a further two months of training, was shipped overseas as a pilot and posted to 6 Squadron as a 1st Class Flyer on the 21st June 1916. Assigned to the Wireless Flight, Ernest was one of only a few pilots in the Royal Flying Corps who didn’t hold a commission and the first of several who would serve with 6 Squadron over the next two and a half years. A member of the ‘other ranks’, he was not permitted to enter the Officers’ Mess and was obliged to mess and bunk with his peers. This strictly-enforced directive made it difficult for Ernest to liaise with his fellow pilots on operational matters, nor plan missions with his observer, who almost certainly would have been an officer. At about the same time that Ernest Handley joined 6 Squadron, Thomas MacLeod, who was already a 2nd lieutenant pilot serving on the Western Front, wrote to the Brisbane Courier to provide its readers with an update as to how the members of the QVFC were faring in Europe. Macleod reported that of the nine men who left for England in 1915, five had already been offered commissions in the Royal Flying Corps and that all but one of them had been accepted for pilot training. In what appears to have been an unusual decision on the part of the RFC, and probably due to the volunteers’ previous flying experience in Australia, Ernest Handley and the three other men who were not offered commissions were listed as aviator-mechanics. One of them, Valdemar Rendle, was the man who taught Ernest to fly in Australia. Note: Valdemar Rendle quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant Pilot after being posted to the Western Front, before being offered a commission as a lieutenant and appointed acting flight commander. Thomas Macleod was promoted from lieutenant to captain by the end of 1916 (with a brief period OC 13 squadron) and was demobilised in 1919 holding the rank of major. It is interesting to note that only three of the original nine QVFC volunteers were killed during WW1. Ernest Handley quickly settled into his role as pilot with 6 Squadron, flying a two-seater BE2d (one of the first of its type to be received by the squadron) on artillery observation missions that required the use of a wireless set for transmitting messages, as well as several bombing missions. The increased capabilities of the BE2d over the ageing BE2c gave it an endurance of close to four and a half hours, bringing distant strategic targets within range for the first time in the war. On the 2nd August 1916, Ernest took part in a daring long-range combined bombing raid involving aircraft from five squadrons. It was a dangerous mission that would earn him the Croix de Guerre medal, though this honour was not gazetted until May 1917. The target for the mission was the Zeppelin storage facility in Brussels, at the extreme range of even the BE2d, especially as each aircraft was required to carry two 112lb bombs. Unable to take an observer because of severe weight limitations, each pilot had to fly alone with no-one to help with the navigation or defending the aircraft. Despite several mishaps along the way, the mission was a success, with Ernest Handley dropping both of his bombs from 3,000 feet on to the Zeppelin shed at Etterbeek, causing significant damage. After re-grouping to the west of Brussels at Strythem, the BE2s flew home under the protection of two separate sets of escort fighters (one of the FE2b escort fighters was flown by the then Sergeant James McCudden) and landed safely at their respective aerodromes with almost empty fuel tanks. The planning and execution of where and when the escort fighters would intercept the returning bombing force was finely calculated, leaving little to chance, but the plan worked. Note: For anyone wishing to know more details of this mission, please send me a message via the Contact page of this website. Though Ernest Handley remained with 6 Squadron for a further six months, there is nothing in the official records that details the rest of his time with the squadron, other than a forced landing he made on the 9th August 1916 after the engine failed on his BE2d while he was out testing the wireless with Lt W S Wright accompanying him as observer. Neither man was injured in the accident. In February 1917, Ernest was posted back to England as an instructor with the Wireless and Observation School at Brooklands Aerodrome in Surrey. According to an interview he had at that time with a London-based journalist from the Townsville Daily Bulletin, Ernest had every intention of returning to the Front. However, on the 20th August 1917, whilst piloting an RE8 on a training flight with his student 2nd Lt H S Jordan, the wings of the aircraft collapsed in mid-air and it crashed, killing both men instantly. As it was impracticable to send Ernest’s remains back to Australia, his body was transported two hundred miles north to the tiny village of North Coats, near Grimsby, and buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas. Ernest Handley’s grave is the only Royal Flying Corps grave in the cemetery at St Nicholas, though the headstone was carved in the same fashion as for any other Royal Flying Corps grave across the World (the photograph shown on this page was kindly provided by Brian Stafford, a resident of the North Coates region) . North Coates was the birthplace of Ernest’s father, who died in 1906 of appendicitis at his home in Alton Downs, Queensland, but there were distant relatives of the Handley family still living in North Coates. The following month, Ernest Handley’s name was posthumously transferred to the Australian Imperial Force, but due to bureaucratic delays between the governments of England and Australia, it wasn’t until January 1919 that Ernest’s personal effects were returned to his mother in Australia. In a cruel twist of fate, Ernest was killed only six months after his step-father died of natural causes. As a poignant post-script to this story, there is no mention of Sergeant Ernest Handley on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour because he was not officially listed with the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) until after his death. Nor is his name listed on any British Memorial. Ernest isn’t recognised on the 6 Squadron Roll of Honour either, as his death occurred six months after he left the squadron. All that remains today in Alton Downs to remind locals of the ultimate sacrifice that Ernest Handley made more than a century ago, is the simple inscription E HANDLEY on the front of a small marble WW1 memorial that stands in the middle of an isolated paddock next to the Alton Downs Community Hall in Queensland, Australia.

Four 6 Squadron aerial photos of destructive shoots on enemy batteries south of Zandvoorde prior to and during the Battle of Messines 6 Squadron Aerial Photos - Destructive Shoot at Zandvoorde The two photographs on Page 30 were taken by an RE8 of 6 Squadron, part of the squadron's aerial reconnaissance operations over the Western Front during WW1. The photographs were taken of a destructive shoot (before and after photos) on a hostile battery 1 1/2 kilometres south of Zandvoorde - GPS coordinates approximately 50°48'01.9"N 2°58'44.5"E, taken prior to and during the Battle of Messines, map coordinates 28. P. 10 . The first photograph was taken on the 24th December 1916 and the date of the second was 14th June 1917, 7 days after the 19 mines were detonated along the Messines Ridge. 6 Squadron Aerial Photos - Another Destructive Shoot at Zandvoorde The two photographs on Page 32 were taken by an RE8 of 6 Squadron, part of the squadron's aerial reconnaissance operations over the Western Front during WW1. The photographs were taken to show the effect of the pre-bombardment allied barrage on a German battery located to the west of Zandvoorde (exact position - 50°48'53.5"N 2°58'05.9"E - 20 metres south of Zillebekestraat in a farmyard by a stream, 150 metres north of the junction with Oude Zonnebekestraat) immediately prior to the Battle of Messines, map coordinates 28. P. 2. a . The upper photograph was taken on the 24th December 1916 and the date of the lower photograph was 9th June 1917, only 2 days after 19 mines were detonaed along the Messines Ridge. Note the extent of the damage.

This is a Google Maps aerial photo of the area covered by the original site plan for the Hinaidi Cantonment Hinaidi Cantonment - Satellite Image (2019) Shown below is a 2019 Google Maps image of the area covered by the original Hinaidi Cantonment. Note that many features, especially the service roads etc, are still clearly visible, despite the major changes made to the air base by the Iraqi air force since RAF Hinaidi was handed over to the Iraqi Government. Click HERE to view the original site plan of the Hinaidi Cantonment, drawn up in 1932. Note also that the site of the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery (now the Ma' Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery) lies within the boundary of the Hinaidi Cantonment, as indicated on the photograph by a red marker

This is the main menu page for 6 Squadron Royal Air Force and explains the association between writer Steve Buster Johnson and 6 squadron RAF 6 Squadron Royal Air Force This section of the website is dedicated to the operations of 6 Squadron during WW1. 6 Squadron celebrated its 110th birthday on 31st January 2024 and holds the record for the longest period of continuous service of any squadron in the world - a record unlikely to be beaten. Twenty years ago, when I started researching my first book For God, England & Ethel (a factual historical novel about the early days of 6 Squadron), I quickly developed an affinity with the squadron in which my grandfather served for three tumultuous years between 1915 and 1917. What was originally intended to be a novel based upon truth ended up being a dramatised factual account of 6 Squadron's day to day operations over the Western Front, told by my grandfather, a lowly wireless mechanic. In order to appease those readers who wanted more facts, I also included a large number of technical footnotes and selected snippets of the squadron's history, some of which have never appeared in print. For God, England & Ethel was six long years in the making, during which time I developed close ties with several WW1 aviation historians as well as the 6 Squadron Association, whose website carries the name 'The Flying Tin-Openers' - a very apt nickname dating back to WW2 where the cannons of 6 Squadron's Hurricanes were used to great effect against enemy tanks in the North African campaign. As I mentioned earlier, this web site concentrates on the early days of 6 Squadron. If you want to learn more about the recent history of this famous squadron, you should visit the 6 Squadron Royal Air Force Association website. The background image on this page is of (as at 2014) Squadron Leader Jim 'Rosie' Lee standing in front of a Typhoon, holding the WW1 message bag that my grandfather brought back from the Western Front and now resides in the 6 Squadron History Room at RAF Lossiemouth.

Searchable database of the 300 RAF, Royal Navy and British Army personnel who were buried at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery between Dec 1921 and Dec 1937. Ma'asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery Graves - 300 RAF, British Army and Royal Navy Deaths There were hundreds of Royal Air Force casualties (deaths) in Mesopotamia that occurred between WW1 and WW2. At that time it was the policy of the British Government to bury the bodies locally and not permit them to be repatriated. The majority of the graves have been well maintained over the years, with the exception of the 300 service personnel and British civilians who died in Iraq and were buried at the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery (now known as the Ma' Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery or simply the Al Rasheed Cemetery) in southern Baghdad. Listed below is a searchable database, providing the Burial Sequence Number, Burial Date, Name, Rank, Service Unit, Honours, Cause of Death and Grave Identification. It is somewhat ironic that many Royal Air Force men who died in Baghdad between 1922 and 1937 were buried at the Baghdad North Gate Military Cemetery instead of at Rasheed, thus ensuring their graves would be well maintained with the other British servicemen buried at the Baghdad North Gate Military Cemetery. For anyone wishing to download the complete database, I have attached a pdf file here. Refer also to the schematic diagram of the Ma'asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery which shows where each grave was located (identified in chronological sequence using the burial numbers as shown in the table below). To use the 'Search' function, enter either a single word / number or a character stream between double quotes, e.g. "6 Sqn".

Aerial photos of allied barrage near Messines and St Eloi, taken by a 6 Squadron RE8 prior to the Battle of Messines 6 Squadron Aerial Photos - Barrage Near Messines and St Eloi The two photographs on Page 40 were taken by an RE8 of 6 Squadron, part of the squadron's aerial reconnaissance operations over the Western Front during WW1. The photographs were taken to demonstrate the effect of the pre-bombardment allied barrage on targets near Martens Farm and Messines. The photographs were taken on the 3rd June 1917 4 days before the Battle of Messines, over map coordinates 28. O. 8. C and 28. U. 2. D . 6 Squadron Aerial Photos - Barrage South of Messines The two photographs on Page 42 were taken by an RE8 of 6 Squadron, part of the squadron's aerial reconnaissance operations over the Western Front during WW1. The photographs were taken to demonstrate the effect of the pre-bombardment allied barrage on targets to the South of Messines. The photographs were taken on the 3rd June 1917 4 days before the Battle of Messines, over map coordinates 28. U. 3. A and 28. U. 2. B .

This page shows the circuit diagram of two early Royal Air Force wireless receivers; a single valve and a dual valve version, c1918. Royal Air Force 1918 Circuit Diagrams of a Dual Valve Receiver This page shows the circuit diagram of both a single and dual valve wireless receiver, in use by the Royal Air Force in 1918.

The RAF Arm Car Coys in Iraq supplemented the two Tank Corps Arm Car Coys in Egypt / Trans Jordan + the first death, only a few weeks after landing in Basrah. The Birth of the RAF Armoured Car Coys in Iraq and the First Casualty In April 1922, the 'powers that be’ in the Army and British Government (Trenchard and Winston Churchill) decided to take the pressure off the British Army in Iraq who were having great difficulty in finding and expelling invading Arab/Kurdish rebels, by establishing four new Armoured Car Companies under the control of the Royal Air Force which would work closely with the RAF bomber / reconnaissance squadrons in driving the rebels back across the border. No 1 Armoured Car Company had earlier been formed in Egypt in December 1921 and No 2 Armoured Car Company at Heliopolis in April 1922, both as part of the Tank Corps, though No 1 Armoured Car Company would move to Palestine in June 1922 before being disbanded in December 1923 and then re-formed in 1930 as an amalgamation of all the RAF Armoured Car Companies, viz Nos 3, 4, 5 and 6 (click HERE f or more details on the RAF Armoured Car Companies). No 2 Armoured Car Company remained under the control of the Tank Corps and moved its operations to India in 1923. In mid 1922, Wing Commander William Harold Primrose was tasked with the job of setting up the four Armoured Car Companies in Iraq (Numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6), requiring in the region of 1,000 RAF personnel (called ‘The Armoured Car Details’) to be trained in England at Manston under Primrose’s command before being transported by ship to Iraq and then by train to RAF Hinaidon the south-eastern outskirts of Baghdad. Wing Commander Primrose's and everyone under his command, sailed on the Braemar Castle, with the intention that they be trained in Baghdad with the RAF squadrons already operating out of RAF Hinaidi. The men would then be allocated to one of the new Armoured Car Companies for a period of 4 years, the first two years being stationed in Iraq. The four new Units became operational on the 3rd November 1922, with Nos 4 and 6 operating out of RAF Hinaidi, No 3 at Basra and No 5 at Mosul. The troopship left England on the 14th September 1922 and arrived at Basra a month later. Leading Aircraftsman Ernest Guy Roseveare, who had been with the RAF since he signed up as a ‘boy’ entrant in 1917 and for a number of years had been Wg Cdr Primrose’s personal driver and who lived with the Primrose family in England, was persuaded by his commanding officer and mentor to accompany him to Iraq. Upon arrival at the port of Basra in southern Iraq in the first week of November 1922, the men and equipment disembarked, the officers (including Wg Cdr Primrose) travelling the 330 miles from Basra to Baghdad by night sleeper, a train providing all the creature comforts and food. The NCOs and 'other ranks' entrained at Shaibah Junction, 10 miles south-west of Basra, on very primitive rolling stock, with each car labelled, “4 horses or 16 men”! Not only was it uncomfortable, the men had to arrange for their own provisions for the long and slow journey. It would appear that Guy Rosevaere either ate meat that was not properly cooked or drank water that had not been boiled at some point during the journey from Shaibah to Baghdad and Baghdad to Hinaidi. Within a couple of days he was ill enough to be admitted to the RAF Hospital, located on the western edge of the cantonment at RAF Hinaidi. The doctors were not sure what he was suffering from but felt it was Typhoid (a salmonella bacteria) contracted from untreated water. After several days, during which his condition fluctuated and then degraded rapidly, Guy Rosevaere died suddenly at 5:45 am Monday 22nd November 1922 and was buried at the RAF Cemetery, also located within the RAF Hinaidi cantonment and on land owned (to this day) by the British Ministry of Defence. His was the first casualty sustained by the Armoured Car Companies, but it would not be the last, as more men from the RAF Armoured Car Wing would be buried at Hinaidi (Ma’Asker) than any other military unit (RAF, British Army or Royal Navy), representing almost 9% of the 300 burials. Several of the subsequent Armoured Car Company deaths were also due to Typhoid, including that of the commanding officer of No 6 Armoured Car Company, Squadron Leader Jasper W Cruikshank OBE, a man who was well known to Wg Cdr Primrose. There is a twist to the story in that the medical records that have survived give the final diagnosis that Guy did have a bacterial infection with similar symptoms to Typhoid and had come from drinking/eating contaminated water or meat, but that it was a different type of bacteria. The finding was that he died from Spirochaetosis and (EHC) Enterohemorrhagic E. The following photos and texts were sent to me by Dawn Rundle, the great niece of Guy Rosevaere, who kindly gave me permission to include them on my website. Sadly, Guy's headstone is not one of the 66 identifiable headstones that have survived the ravages of time, but Dawn and I sincerely hope that this unfortunate situation will soon be rectified. LAC Ernest Guy Rosevaere Grave at Hinaidi (Ma'Asker) RAF Cemetery, Baghdad The photograph on the left shows Wg Cdr Primrose laying a bouquet of flowers at the grave of his driver, Guy Rosevaere. In the background you can see the open-seater Rolls Royce of which Guy was so proud. The presence of graves in the background of this photograph suggests that this was not the final resting place of Guy Rosevaere as the photograph immediately below (as well as the records held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the location of the 300 graves at Hinaidi/Ma'Asker) clearly show that his was the end grave of Row D, viz Plot 1 Row D Grave 14 (click here for cemetery grave layout) The photograph below is also interesting in that earlier burial in Plot 1 had a variety of headstone shapes and types. By the time the British forces vacated RAF Hinaidi in December 1937, almost all of the 300 graves were marked with the standard dimension Commonwealth War Graves Commission stone headstone. Beyond the fence in the background was the gardener's residence and storage area and the northern perimeter of the cemetery (on the right in the photograph) is lined with trees. Journal Notes Written by Wg Cdr Primrose to his Wife re Guy Rosevaere's Condition Thursday 23rd November 1922 I went to the hospital to see poor old Roseveare. He’s not doing well at all and I am worried about him – they cannot make out what’s wrong with him, but it looks rather like Typhoid. I saw him and tried to cheer him up. He is such a wee pluck and such a nice boy, a great favourite with the Matron and Sisters. The doctors who are some of the best in the RAF are doing all they can – I told them that anything that cannot be supplied by the hospital, get it for him and charge same - but they said he could have anything to champagne and oysters if necessary. The Hospital is perfect and has specialists for everything and the OC is Wing Commander Plain who was a great friend of mine on the Braemar Castle and will do anything for me - Roseveare is better tonight, have just had a phone message - he suffers no pain. Friday 24th November 1922 Roseveare is worse today a weak heart and they have put him on the seriously ill list and wired his people. I saw him for a few minutes, he is weak but spoke cheerfully and said he had no pain and was feeling better and was getting all he wanted except to get back to his Rolls Royce. Went out to Hinaidi to see the new Armoured Car buildings with Wilbert and Cruikshank - we found the Works and Buildings Officer was an old friend of mine from the Air Ministry, a one-armed man called Captain Masters who once came over and had tea with us at Marston - if you remember - is going to do everything I want - I'm to dine with him tomorrow. Am feeling too worried about Roseveare to write more. I know I am worrying too much and he'll probably be all right but I feel sort of responsible for him. And Brassington. Saturday 25th November 1922 Roseveare is much better today. They've had a specialist in to see him and there is something about his symptoms that's puzzling them. It’s not typhoid – they think it’s some bug he's got from drinking water that Billy bought at Basra without having it boiled - they were all warned not to touch the stuff before we left the ship - however he was quite perky when I saw him today. The Doctor who is looking after him said he could take him off the serious list but wouldn’t wire his people to that effect yet in case he had a relapse and had to be put on again and that would worry them more. I’m going to discuss it tonight. We have settled down to winter training - the weather is very cold now and the rain has started, not very bad yet but getting worse - I am going tomorrow up the river in the hospital launch with Wing Commander Plain. Good night, God bless you darling, I love and think of you always. Sunday 26th November 1922 Went off shooting this morning and had a very good day of it 25 miles up the river. Got 30 birds, Sand Grouse and Black Partridge, but returned to bad news - Roseveare had developed a bad turn for the worse and had been put on the DO list, that is dangerously ill list. It has definitely developed as a very sore liver and spleen complaint, hardly ever come across in this country - poor wee lad they thought he was going to die early this afternoon. He however rallied but its nearly always fatal this damned complaint, they've told me - only about 3 weeks in this country and then this to happen to him of all people. Such a healthy kid he is too as a rule – it isn’t as if there was much sickness. In fact there's no more here just now than there is normally at home. They said I'd better not see him tonight as it would only distress him as he is critical but has no idea that he's dangerously ill and has no pain, that’s one consolation. It will be awful if anything happens as I am so fond of the boy and I feel so responsible for him. However, if it’s God’s will, it’s got to be. Good night, my wife. Monday 27th November 1922 Yes, darling, the worst has happened. Poor little Roseveare slipped his moorings at 5.45 am this morning and drifted gently from this troubled world to the next – God rest him - he was a dear lad and it’s hard to see the reason for these things but God knows and we must not question. I just feel stunned and poor Brassington is pathetic. I am not cabling as at first I intended. What's the good of sending a hard and unsympathetic cable which would only upset you. This bad news will come soon enough by Air Mail - I wish I were with it to comfort you and get comfort. We bury him today and I have a lot to do. Oh why poor wee Rosie? Tuesday 28th November 1922 Roseveare's people's address is: Mr & Mrs Roseveare, 6 Hill Park, Launceston, Cornwall. I am writing them today and if you feel like it you might perhaps drop them a wee line of sympathy to the mother. The Matron, my Scotch Miss Cameron, is writing and also Padre Sqn Ldr Walkley. Willock and I took all the funeral arrangements in hand. All the men wanted to come and there was a big gathering. The men sent a beautiful wreath of chrysanthemums and I got out of this garden here a really beautiful little bunch of roses and chrysanthemums and dropped them on the poor lad's coffin from his mother - it just fairly broke me up. But there is life and in life is death and those that have gone on before. Everything was done for him and he’s left the world for a better place. Letter of Condolence Written by Wg Cdr Primrose to Guy Rosevaere's Father

The books (fiction and non-fiction) of Steve Buster Johnson, including WW1 Aviation, historical novels, ADHD self-help guide and the operation of 6 Squadron Royal Air Force during WW1 Books by Steve Buster Johnson I had two books published in February 2026. The first was The Cordwainer's Daughter , the true story of my maternal grandmother who grew up in England during Victorian times and experienced life under six British Monarchs. Ethel Pocock is also the co-star character of my first book, For God England & Ethel , a biography of my grandfather but Ethel's story is as compelling as that of Fred Johnstone, my grandfather. The second book, Rigger's Notes for British WW1 Aircraft is the reproduction of a WW1 Training Handbook on how to rig the wings and fuselage of nine British military aircraft in service at that time: Maurice Farman Long Horn (1913 Type) Maurice Farman Short Horn (1914 Type) Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c De Havilland (later Airco) DH1 De Havilland (later Airco) DH2 Avro 504 Bristol Scout (Type ‘C’) Vickers FB5 (Gunbus) The book includes detailed drawings as well as 'step by step' instructions for riggers in training at RAF Thetford. Another writing project on the 'drawing board' is a factual novel set in Iraq during the nineteen-twenties, highlighting the dangers and depravations experienced by the Royal Air Force squadrons based in Baghdad "between the wars". The fighting in Mesopotamia is a largely forgotten conflict, as are the deaths of hundreds of Royal Air Force and British Army personnel whose bodies lie in a deserted and unprotected RAF cemetery at Hinaidi, a southern suburb of Baghdad, compared to hundreds of other servicemen who died during the same conflict but by chance were buried at the well-tended war cemeteries at Baghdad North Gate and Habbaniya, both of which have been recently refurbished by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The provisional title for the book is Above the Sands of Iraq . The other six books I have already published are Rising from the Flanders Mud , Over the Western Front (the story of 6 Squadron which fought over the Western Front during the Great War), For God, England & Ethel (a biography of my grandfather who served with 6 Squadron during WW1), Seven Days in April (a Royal Flying Corps historical novel in the genre of a murder / mystery), Leaning on a Lamp Post (an autobiography covering the early part of my life in the UK, shortly after the end of WW2) and A Man of Many Letters , All can be purchased from Amazon in most countries or direct from the printer Feed-a-Read (though the latter not for my latest book, The Cordwainer's Daughter). The Last Race is a very short but true account of an unlikely win at my very last rowing regatta which only appears on this website.

This page provides photographs of all seventy-seven (77) identifiable headstones exisiting today (4th Nov 2025) at the Ma'Asker RAF Cemetery (complete or damaged) Ma'asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery - Surviving Headstones This page contains photographs of the seventy-seven (77) headstones that have survived at the Ma'Asker Al Raschid War Cemetery, out of the original 300 burials. 28 of these are still complete with the remaining 48 in various stages of fragmentation but still able to be identified. This means that, as at October 2025, more than one quarter of all headstones at Ma'Asker Al Raschid cemetery can be accounted for in identifiable condition. The photographs below appear in Plot, Row and Grave sequence but can also be accessed directly by clicking on the name of the person of interest via the interactive grave diagram page. You can also view a list of the seventy-seven names in alphabetical order The background image for this page (visible on all devices except mobile 'phones) is a photograph of Plot 3 of the Ma'asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery (formerly known as the Hinaidi RAF Peace Cemetery) c1935, looking north-west, with the grave of Sergeant William Stanley Woods (Plot 3 Row M Grave 1) closest to the camera. Anchor 1 Anchor 2 Anchor 3 Anchor 4 Anchor 5 Anchor 6 Anchor 7 Anchor 8 Anchor 9 Anchor 10 Anchor 11 Anchor 12 Anchor 13 Anchor 14 Anchor 15 Anchor 16 Anchor 17 Anchor 18 Anchor 19

A brief history of 84 Squadron, from its formation in 1917 until the 1930s when it was serving in Mesopotamia and based at the RAF Baghdad West aerodrome 84 Squadron Royal Air Force Page 7 of "An Introduction to Iraq" provides a brief history of 84 Squadron (one of the Royal Air Force squadrons to be based in Mesopotamia during the inter-war years). At the time of publication (August 1935) the commanding officer of 84 Squadron was Squadron Leader (later Air Chief Marshall) F J Fogarty DFC, AFC. The photograph is an aerial shot of a flight of 84 Squadron's two-seater Westland Wapiti general purpose military aircraft.

Aerial photos of destructive shoots on enemy batteries near Neerwaastenstraat (south of Hollebeke) taken by a 6 Squadron RE8 prior to the Battle of Messines 6 Squadron Aerial Photos - Destructive Shoot at Neerwaastenstraat The two photographs on Page 29 were taken by an RE8 of 6 Squadron, part of the squadron's aerial reconnaissance operations over the Western Front during WW1. The photographs were taken of a destructive shoot (before and after) on a hostile battery 100 metres to the east of Neerwaastenstraat, 1 kilometre south of Hollebeke, as defined by mapping coordinates 28. O. 18. A and 28. O. 17. B . (present location in the middle of a field GPS coordinates 50°47'47.9"N 2°56'17.2"E), taken prior to the Battle of Messines. The first photograph was taken on the 6th April 1917 and the date of the second was 26th May 1917.