WIX Archives
Re: Hubert Williams RFC, RAF, WWI, WW2 RIP...
Posted by Elliott on Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:55:26 AM
In reply top Hubert Williams RFC, RAF, WWI, WW2 RIP... posted by Paul McMillan on Mon Sep 23, 2002 11:16:01 AM
Those guys had a LOT of guts. V pleased to see the RAF are going to lay on a ceremony.
:
: Don't usually post Obits on this site, but I think this gu
: y deserves a special mention...
:
: Last World War I flying ace dies quietly at 106 Sep 20 200
: 2
:
: The Western Mail
:
:
: THE only surviving pilot from the Royal Flying Corps in th
: e First World War has died at the age of 106.
:
: Flying ace Hubert Williams was the last of a breed of pilo
: ts who risked their lives every time they flew their bipla
: nes into combat. They were in danger both from the enemy a
: nd from the flimsiness of their own aircraft.
:
: Great-great grandfather Hubert died quietly in a Cardiff n
: ursing home 84 years after his last mission over enemy lin
: es.
:
: Tributes were paid yesterday to Hubert and his colleagues
: in the Royal Flying Corps, which became the Royal Air Forc
: e in 1918.
:
: Hubert cheated death when he was 22 years of age - he was
: shot down over Macedonia in Northern Greece in his Sopwith
: Camel biplane.
:
: He was pulled unconscious from the wreckage by villagers b
: efore being taken to a hospital in Malta where his life hu
: ng by a thread.
:
: It took him nine months to recover before he was able to r
: eturn home to Britain.
:
: Hubert had been transferred to the Eastern Mediterranean a
: fter spending much of the conflict bombing German trenches
: on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
:
: Widower Hubert said of his exploits, "I'm no hero - I just
: consider myself a remarkably lucky man to have survived."
:
:
: Many of his fellow air pioneers were killed but Hubert was
: proud to survive to see the age of supersonic flight.
:
: One of the highlights of his long life came when he took t
: he controls of Concorde on a flight to New York to mark hi
: s 100th birthday.
:
: At the age of 102 he received the Legion D'Honneur award f
: rom the French Government.
:
: The RAF will pay tribute to Hubert at his funeral next wee
: k.
:
: A wreath displaying the Royal Flying Corps badge will be l
: aid at the ceremony by a senior officer.
:
: World War One Veterans Association chairman Dennis Goodwin
: said yesterday, "Hubert was the last Royal Flying Corps p
: ilot still alive.
:
: "It is truly the end of an era and
:
: marks the passing away of the band of pioneering pilots wh
: o were brave beyond the call of duty.
:
: "They knew that every time they went into the air that the
: odds against them returning alive were heavily stacked ag
: ainst them.
:
: "Britain owes a great deal to these gallant men who were p
: repared to lay their life on the line for their country."
:
: Hubert joined the RAF in World War II, training pilots to
: fly and reaching the rank of squadron leader.
:
: After the war he worked for 42 years running a successful
: electrical business in Cardiff.
:
: Hubert was just 20 when he signed up in 1915 to fly over t
: he trenches even though he was told life expectancy was "o
: nly hours".
:
: He joined up because the pay of two shillings and eight pe
: nce a day was better than the army and navy.
:
: Within weeks he began his flying "training" - seven hours
: flying around a field in a glider.
:
: He was stationed first at Avignon and then saw his first a
: ction flying over the trenches during the Battle of Somme
: in July 1916.
:
: He said at the time of his French award, "I can remember t
: he bombing, the shrapnel, shells going off all around, the
: guns flashing.
:
: "It was terrible. There was smoke everywhere. I could hear
: people screaming and there was masses of blood.
:
: "I lost a lot of my friends. I can remember waving to one
: colleague as we were flying and the next second he was a b
: all of flames.
:
: "He had been shot down by a German plane and I expected th
: e same thing to happen to me at any second."
:
: Hubert was flying a Sopwith 2F1 Camel which was equipped w
: ith two bombs suspended by wire and two machine guns.The p
: lane was made of wood and could fly at only 65mph at an al
: titude of 5,000ft but only for an hour at a time before it
: s fuel ran out.
:
: If the plane's wings were damaged by gunfire it would be p
: atched up using a mixture of Irish linen and cellulose.
:
: Hubert's daughter, Mrs Marcia Cornish, 70, said, "The fami
: ly is very proud of him.
:
: "He was a modest man who never spoke of his time in the Ro
: yal Flying Corps until the last few years of his life."
:
: Although the airplane had never been used in combat before
: World War I, it greatly influenced the course of the war.
:
: