Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

80 could be the subject of a book on their own; but here I must keep it brief. He was commissioned into the 4th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers in September 1915, but wanting more action than this reserve battalion could offer, he began training to join the Royal Flying Corps the following January. Although old for a wartime aviator – he was already 34 – his short stature and the facts that he was ‘physically slight but by no means delicate’ 131 and a quick learner made him well suited to this arduous role. Between August 1916 and July 1917 he spent a continuous 11 months in action as a scout pilot with 40 Squadron, including missions over the Somme and Ypres fronts; his long survival is testament to his flying skills. He escaped uninjured when his FE8 was shot down on 25 September 1916, 132 and in the summer of 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross and the Legion d’Honneur for his achievements; the MC citation noted that he had ‘invariably displayed the highest courage and skill’. In mid-1917 he transferred to 66 Squadron, and he took command of the squadron in mid-October shortly before it moved from France to the Italian front in November 1917. Sadly, his good luck could not last indefinitely, and on 23 January 1918 Major Gregory, as he now was, lost his life when his plane crashed near Padua. More information on his career as an aviator can be found in many sources. For present purposes, we must just consider in a bit more detail three of the more mysterious aspects of his flying career, as reported in at least some of those sources. First, as noted earlier, several authorities, including the DIB , credit him with 19 ‘victories’ over enemy aircraft during his flying career. If correct, this would make him one of the leading Allied aces of the First World War. Yet his name does not appear in the list of aces – defined as those with five or more ‘kills’ or ‘victories’ to their credit – in published records, including the comprehensive and definitive study Above the Trenches . 133 From records in the National Archives I can identify only two probable ‘victories’ during Gregory’s time with 40 Squadron, from five combat reports bearing his name dated between February and May 1917, and none during his time with 66 Squadron. 134 Even if some reports have not survived, it seems that a figure of ‘under five’ victories is much more likely 131 Adrian Smith, Major Robert Gregory and the Irish Air Aces of 1917-18 , on www.historyireland.com 132 Trevor Henshaw, The Sky Their Battlefield, Grub Street, 1995. 133 Christopher Shores, Norman Franks and Russell Guest, Above the Trenches, Grub Street, 1990. 134 National Archives refs AIR1/1222/204/5/2634 (40 Squadron Air Combat Reports from September 1916) and AIR1/1575/204/80/76 (66 Squadron record books December 1917 to March 1918). In the Wickets Gregory in flying kit in 1916.