Maurice Graham English

Maurice Graham English (1898 – 16 July 1918) was a World War I Irish aviator who was shot down by German flying ace Hans Goerth.

Lieutenant Maurice Graham English
Born1898
Derry, County Londonderry, Ireland
Died16 July 1918(1918-07-16) (aged 19–20)
near Moere, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Buried
Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery, Nieuwpoort, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
 Royal Air Force
RankLieutenant
UnitRoyal Naval Air Service, No. 202 Squadron RAF
Airco de Havilland DH.4 soaring above the clouds in France.

Background

Maurice English was the second son of John Graham English and his wife Ellen "Nellie" Jane English of Marlborough Street in Derry, County Londonderry, Ireland.[1][2][3][4][5] A native of Derry, he was born in the second quarter of 1898 and attended Foyle College in the city.[3][6] English was a member of the First Derry Presbyterian Church, and was with Brown's Engineering Works before he joined the service.[3]

Military career
RAF roundel at the time of World War I

During World War I, Maurice English initially served in the Royal Naval Air Service, joining in early 1916.[1][2] He received a commission as an observer in 1917.[3] After the 1 April 1918 merger of that branch with the Royal Flying Corps, he served as a lieutenant in the No. 202 Squadron of the 61st Wing of the newly formed Royal Air Force.[1][2][3][7] The aviator's aircraft was Airco DH.4 (A7868).[7] He flew with English flying ace Lieutenant Lionel Arthur Ashfield, as well as Lieutenant N. H. Jenkins.[7] Not long before his death, he was wounded while engaged in perilous photographic work over Ostend.

Death
Diamond War Memorial

On 16 July 1918, Lieutenant English's Airco de Havilland DH.4 with serial number A7868 was shot down while returning from Bruges by Vizeflugmeister Hans Goerth over the village of Zevekote in West Flanders, Belgium.[1][2][8][9][10] The twenty-year-old, who had been acting as observer, died in the aerial combat near Moere, as did the pilot, Lieutenant Ashfield.[2][8] During World War I, the German flying ace Hans Goerth was credited with seven aerial victories,[8][9] of which the downing of English's de Havilland was the third. [8][9] Maurice Graham English was interred at the Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery near Nieuwpoort in West Flanders.[1][2] However, the Irish aviator is also represented on a cenotaph, the Diamond War Memorial, in the center of Derry, Londonderry, Northern Ireland.[3]

gollark: I think fish said something about 3am-10am?
gollark: It would be interesting to get a better view of what's in them *without* writing down it by hand every 5 minutes, but would be somewhat cheaty/TJ09-annoying.
gollark: _considers automatically checking biomes periodically_
gollark: They're normally regular?!
gollark: If only we had data to work from...

References
Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery
  1. The War Graves Photographic Project - English
  2. Commonwealth War Graves Commission - English
  3. Diamond War Memorial Project - Maurice Graham English
  4. The National Archives of Ireland - 1901 Ireland Census
  5. The National Archives of Ireland - 1911 Ireland Census
  6. Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index
  7. The Aerodrome - The Aircraft of World War I - A7868
  8. Fokker D VII Aces of World War I, Part 2, by Norman Franks and Greg VanWyngarden, p 24-25
  9. The Aerodrome - Hans Goerth
  10. AIRFIELDS AND AIRMEN - The northern part of West-Flanders
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