Military Personnel (army, navy, airforce) from Perthshire in the First and Second World War – Name Guide


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.

Sergeant David Taylor Adams

Sergeant Alexander Stewart Allan

Pilot Officer Peter Gordon Anderson

Frank & Harold Barnwell

Battle of Britain

Flight Sergeant Alan Reid Beveridge and Flight Lieutenant Robert Graham Webster Beveridge

Flight Sergeant Colin David Brough

Neil Cameron ~ Marshall of the RAF

Flight Lieutenant Douglas Cameron DFM

Flight Sergeant Archibald Campbell

Acting Sergeant David Ferguson Sharpe Campbell

Leading Aircraftman James Cameron Campbell

Sergeant John Archibald Campbell

Sergeant Patrick Cameron

Leading Aircraftwoman Ethel Cassidy

Sergeant Joseph MacCrae Chambers

Flight Sergeant Eric Cooke

Petty Officer James William Crow

Sergeant Andrew Smitton Darling

Captain John Neil Campbell Denholm

Leading Aircraftman William Deuchars

Sergeant Allan Dickson

Flight Sergeant Douglas James Morrison Dunn

John William Dunne

Second Lieutenant David Ogilvie Duthie

Aircraftman 1st Class John Tyndel Farquhar

Sergeant James Roy Fenwick 

Sergeant Duncan Cameron Findlay

Flight Lieutenant William Simpson Fraser

Flight Sergeant Henry Anselm de Freitas

Sergeant James Victor Gardiner

Sergeant William Nairn Gardiner

Sergeant Gilbert Cameron Gibson

Sergeant William James Gilchrist

Leading Aircraftman Denholm Gow

Flying Officer Charles Grant

Flight Lieutenant Alastair Donald Mackintosh “Sandy” Gunn

Private William Haggart

Squadron Leader James Crawford Halley DSO

Group Captain Robert Halley DFC & 2 Bars, AFC

Pilot Officer William John Henderson

Sergeant David Gall Hodge

Flight Lieutenant Ernie ‘Sherl-E’ Holmes, DFC

Flying Officer James (Jimmie) Harper Greig Horne

Wing Commander Edward Peter William Hutton

Flying Officer Hermone Alexander Innes DFC

Sergeant Thomas Kaye

Aircraftman 2nd Class Thomas Kennedy

Flight Sergeant William Knaggs

Pilot Officer John Reginald James Laidlay

Sergeant David Maxwell Laing

Second Lieutenant Herrick Peter Gladstone Leyden and Second Lieutenant Robert William Gladstone Leyden

Sergeant Alexander Little

Pilot Officer John Littlejohn

Lieutenant Courteney Patrick Flowerdew Lowson

Squadron Leader Ian Neil MacDougall DFC & Pilot Officer David Ormond MacDougall DFC

Sergeant Charles MacFarlane

Lieutenant Peter MacFarlane

Pilot Officer John George Mackay

Second Lieutenant Alexander McKenzie

Corporal Colin Mackenzie

Steward Robert Russell Martin

Pilot Officer James McCash

Lieutenant John Watson McCash

Sergeant William J J McDougall

Flight Sergeant William Henderson McDougall

Alexander McInnes

Sergeant Alistair Stuart McLaren

Pilot Officer John McLaren

Pilot Officer John Robertson McLaren

Flight Sergeant William Alistair McLaren

Flight Sergeant Ian Graham Campbell Miller

Lieutenant Commander John William Charlton Moffat

Flight Lieutenant John Alexander Morrison

Aircraftman 1st Class William Blair Morrison

Leading Aircraftman Thomas Ralph Morton

Sergeant Andrew Mackenzie Munn

Murie Cemetery, Fairey Swordfish, pilots and crew and the River Tay

Sergeant Thomas Nicholson

Sergeant John King ‘Jack/Jock’ Norwell, AFC

Sergeant Ronald Staples Ogg

Leading Aircraftman Alex Thomson Paterson

Flight Sergeant Alfred William Patterson

Sergeant Charles Duncan Powrie

Squadron Leader David Douglas Pryde DFC

Pilot Officer Charles Rankin

Flight Lieutenant William Reid VC

Leading Aircraftwoman Nan Menzies Roberts

Squadron Leader Colin Robertson DFC

Sergeant John Conacher Robertson

Aircraftman 1st Class David Robertson

Second Lieutenant John Ross

Flight Sergeant Gilbert Ferguson Sage

Flight Lieutenant James Shaw

Flight Sergeant Roderick Forbes Sim

Sergeant Derrick Barrie Simpson

Alan Smith, CBE, DFC and Bar, DL

Sergeant Crichton Alexander Smith

Wing Commander Forgrave Marshall Smith DFC

Squadron Leader Gavin Strang Smith  

Sergeant Leonard Albert Soutar

Second Lieutenant Andrew Beattie Sneddon

Corporal Robert Stewart

Sergeant Peter Straiton

Leading Aircraftman Ian Taylor

Flight Lieutenant Alexander Henry Thom DFC

Leading Aircraftman Benjamin Thomas

Sergeant William Thomson

Flight Sergeant Antony Verdon

Sergeant William Scrimgeour Walton

Acting Flight Lieutenant William M Walton

Warrant Officer William Alexander Watson DFM

Second Lieutenant Howard Watson

Sergeant James Milton Whitehead

Lieutenant Cyril Williams

Pilot Officer David Wood

Flight Sergeant James Currie Wood

Margaret Watson-Watt

Pilot Officer William James Young

German Air Reconnaissance

Spitfire AA790 (PRU) Photographic Reconnaissance Unit

South Kilduff Royal Flying Corp Airfield

Moscow Special Assignment Airgroup of the Soviet Air Force