Jackonicko, hate to correct you.... but Naval Airman Allingham was one of ours!
CV reads:
Henry Allingham was born on 6 June 1896 in Clapham, London.
He joined the RNAS in 1915, training initially at Chingford. His first posting was to Great Yarmouth, as an Air Mechanic First Class, where he often flew. In early May 1916 he was ordered to join the destroyer HMS Kingfisher, equipped with a seaplane, that accompanied the fleet during the Battle of Jutland.
In 1917 he was posted to the Western Front to join No 9 Squadron (RNAS) – later No 209 Squadron (RAF) – equipped with the Sopwith Camel. Henry continued to serve in France and Belgium until the Armistice.
He was discharged in 1919 and joined Fords where he worked until retirement. Henry married Dorothy shortly after leaving the RAF. Their marriage lasted 53 years and produced two daughters. He now has 5 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren - all living in America.
Henry Allingham St Omer Memorial September 2004:
Henry Allingham, a 108-year old veteran of the Royal Naval Air Service, returned to France for the first time since his service there as a mechanic during the Great War to lay a wreath at the memorial, which was unveiled by Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge and Lieutenant General Jean Patrick Gaviard of the Armee de l'Air. Mr Allingham served as a Royal Naval Air Service mechanic and flew patrols in the North Sea as a navigator and is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland in which the British Grand Fleet established dominance of the North Sea despite losing more ships on the day. He was then based at the British Air Services Aerodrome at St Omer in Northern France where he repaired aircraft and engines at the battles of the Somme and Ypres. The British airfield at St Omer was established ninety years ago in October 1914 and it quickly developed into the most important British air base during the fighting in France and Belgium in WW1. As the concept of Air Power was born and its benefits realised, the initially small British air services rapidly grew into the Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. More than fifty squadrons were based at some point at St Omer which was both an operational station and a major maintenance depot with over 4,000 personnel based there in 1918. The struggle for air superiority over the Lines came at a high cost with the British airmen maintaining a relentless offensive despite suffering periods of technical and tactical inferiority to the Germans, most notoriously "Bloody April" in 1917; over 8,000 airmen fell as casualties.
Representing the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm at the ceremony was Commodore Steve Jermy, Assistant Chief of Staff (Aviation) and Commodore Fleet Air Arm who laid a wreath and led the standing ovation when Henry Allingham laid his.
Speaking to the BBC at last year's ceremony at the Cenotaph Mr Allingham said he thought joining the war effort would be "an adventure". At that time aviation was still in its infancy and men such as Henry Allingham were pioneers: "It was the first time I went near a plane," he said, pointing out that the first powered flight in the world had only taken place a handful of years earlier. He remembers the plane he flew in the war's opening months, "my baby" as he called it, with a degree of disbelief. "They didn't have much speed with them. Sometimes they'd be coming along and the force of the wind would have you standing still. Sometimes you'd be flying backwards," he said. "You'd have to have good weather to fly.”There were two rifles in the cockpit that was all the armaments we had."