Military Personnel (army, navy, airforce) from Perthshire in the First and Second World War – Name Guide – Made in Perth ~ Official Website ~ SC044155

Kenneth Bruce, author of Where Sky and Summit Meet: Flight over Perthshire – A History: Tales of Pilots, Airfields, Aeronautical Feats, & War (2019) has researched the stories of many of those flew, were born, lived, or trained in Perthshire, including those who served in the air forces during the First and Second World Wars.

The list below is a NAME index – to search a STREET/TOWN index click here:

This “flyers” database is an on-going project, and I am happy to receive any information on anyone I have in the database or on those who should be included. Contact Email: Ken Bruce.

First World War: On 28 July 1914 BRITAIN DECLARED WAR and the First World War – the ‘Great War’; the ‘war to end all wars’ – commenced. Ostensibly caused by inter-imperialist rivalry, the first shots of the war followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 and the ensuing European crisis led to the world mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel.

The war lasted until 11 November 1918 and directly resulted in the loss of 9 million combatants and 13 million civilian deaths. Britain went to war in the air with only three squadrons comprising but 113 airworthy aircraft and 2,000 all ranks Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) personnel. Initially the RFC and RNAS relied heavily on the French aircraft industry, especially for aircraft engines.

The RFC first went into action on 19 August 1914, six days after they had left the UK for France. By the end of the war, the Allies were out-producing German industry by nearly five-to-one in terms of aircraft and over seven-to-one in engines. Over 200,000 aircraft worldwide were produced during the war.

The overall average life expectancy during the Great War of a pilot was 92 flying hours. There was nonetheless no shortage of volunteers for aircrew training and to join what Prime Minister David Lloyd George called the ‘cavalry of the clouds’. Parachutes were not issued until the end of the war.

Second World War: BRITAIN DECLARED WAR again on Germany at 11:15 hours on 3 September 1939. That evening, the German submarine U-30 torpedoed and sank the transatlantic passenger liner SS Athenia south of Rockall (in the North Atlantic Ocean), with the loss of 117 lives. The Glasgow-built SS Athenia carrying over 1,100 passengers was enroute to Montreal having left Glasgow on 1 September. War had arrived in Britain. The following day, No. 224 Squadron RAF (Coastal Command at RAF Leuchars) flying Lockheed Hudson’s coastal reconnaissance aircraft took part in the first air- to-air combat of the war when they attacked, unsuccessfully, a lone Dornier Do 18 Flying Boat over the North Sea.

During the Second World War, the RAF reached a total strength of 1,208,000 men and women during WW2 of whom 185,000 were aircrew. Some 125,000 RAF Bomber Command aircrew took to the skies. Of these 55,573 were killed, a further 8,403 were wounded and 9,838 became prisoners of war. One in six would be expected to survive their first tour of 30 operations. Only one in 40 would survive their second tour of duty.