The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals 209


An important early aviator’s Great War group of three awarded to Major F. G. ‘Freddy’ Small, Connaught Rangers, attached Royal Flying Corps: a member of the original British Expeditionary Force, on 26 August 1914 he delivered a message to Haig’s H.Q. by audaciously landing between the lines of I Corps and the pursuing Germans, and was the first Royal Flying Corps airman to shoot down an enemy aircraft with a machine-gun


1914 Star (Lieut. F. G. Small. C. Rang. Attd: R.F.C.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Major F. G. Small. R.F.C.); together with a bullet, 7.65mm, the tip of which has been bent on impact, capped with gold inscribed ‘December 6th 1914’ - the date that he received his active-service career-ending wounds, good very fine (3)


£2,000-£3,000 M.I.D. London Gazette 17 February 1915


Francis Gordon Small was born in Keynsham, Somerset on 7 March 1890. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Connaught Rangers on 20 April 1910 and was promoted Lieutenant in December 1911. Having obtained his Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificate on 22 October 1912, he was appointed Flying Officer in the Royal Flying Corps, Military Wing, on 17 April 1913 - less than a year after its formation - and was posted to No. 5 Squadron.


On 14 August 1914, following the outbreak of the Great War, Small left Southampton bound for Maubeuge, France - 13 miles south of Mons. Here 2, 3, 4 and 5 Squadrons all gathered at the R.F.C.’s forward base for the purposes of conducting their principal role of reconnaissance. Less than 2 weeks later, on 26 August, as the British Expeditionary Force was in full retreat from the advancing Germans, Lieutenant Small and Lieutenant Borton were lucky to escape after being forced to land their plane between the lines of I Corps and the pursuing Germans on the far side of the Sambre: ‘On the British right, close to Le Cateau, the danger was now acute. It was harder than ever to get in touch with Haig, whose I Corps was going back, as we have seen, on the far side of the Sambre with relatively undisturbed spells of retreat and halt, retreat and halt. To try to find Haig, two of the Royal Flying Corps Fifth Squadron, Lieutenants Borton and Small, were sent out. They could not find a landing-ground at the rear of I Corps, so they came down between the firing lines in a field protected against the enemy fire by a rise of ground. A nearby cavalry patrol offered a solution of sorts: the riders promised to deliver the message to Haig’s HQ and the lieutenants went back to their aircraft, starting it up and flying away just as two Uhlans rode into the field.’ (Farewell Leicester Square - The Old Contemptibles 12 August - 20 November 1914 by Kate Caffrey refers)


Although there are competing claims for the title of ‘first R.F.C. airman to shoot down an enemy aircraft’, with Lieutenant C. E. C. Rabagliati often credited, the R.A.F. Museum maintains that this honour belongs to Lieutenant Strange and his gunner Lieutenant F. G. Small. In any case, it appears beyond doubt that Strange and Small were the first to use a machine-gun to bring down an aerial opponent: ‘22 November - The first enemy aircraft is shot down by a British aircraft. Lieutenants L. A. Strange and F. G. Small in an Avro biplane of No. 5 Squadron engaged a German Albatros. The Avro was fitted with a machine gun in spite of orders for Strange to desist from machine-gun experiments. Two drums were emptied into the enemy aircraft, which made a forced landing behind Allied lines near Neuve-Église. The two German crew members were uninjured and were captured by the British aviators who landed nearby. The Albatros had been hit 20 times by the British fire.’ (rafmuseum.org.uk)


A more graphic account of this seminal episode of aerial combat - in which Small was also wounded - is to be found in Ralph Barker’s ‘The Royal Flying Corps in World War 1’: ‘Against orders, he [Strange] fitted a cross bar against the centre section struts over which a rope was slung, so that a Lewis machine- gun, mounted on top of the fuselage decking, could be hauled up on a pulley in mid-air, free to fire in all directions. A chance to use it came on the morning on 22 November when, on reconnaissance with observer Lieutenant Freddy Small, they spotted a German reconnaissance machine heading for St. Omer at about 7000 feet. Recognising it as an Aviatik, Strange climbed and turned in front of it, manoeuvring for position. When he gave the signal, Small fired two long bursts, after which Strange closed the range to 50 feet only to see the German observer taking pot shots at them with a Mauser pistol. Small was in the act of changing a drum, standing up immediately in front of Strange, when his face suddenly contorted and Strange saw blood oozing from his gloved hand. Nevertheless Small completed the drum-change, and after another long burst the Aviatik pulled up, stalled, and side-slipped before flattening out and coming down near some reserve trenches on what appeared to be the British side of the line. Landing at an aerodrome nearby, Strange delivered Small for first aid before cadging a motorcycle to see what had happened to the Aviatik, convinced that Freddy Small had shot it down. He found it just where he expected, with twenty bullet holes in it but apparently capable at the very least of having continued into friendly territory. Presumably the pilot thought that he had crossed the lines. His observer and superior officer, of the Prussian Guard, was furious at being captured, and when discovered his NCO pilot was uninjured he broke away from his captors and knocked him down, and began kicking him viciously before he was overpowered and dragged away.’


Lieutenant Small was wounded a second time on 6 December 1914 and was Mentioned in Sir John French’s Despatch of 14 January 1915. Both A. E. Borton and L. A. Strange were mentioned in the same despatch. Remaining on attachment to the Royal Flying Corps, he was unfit to fly during 1915 and was appointed Commander of No. 47 Squadron (Home Defence) on 21 March 1916. He took up duties as an instructor in July 1916 and was advanced Temporary Major in May 1917, being confirmed in the rank on 5 June 1919. He relinquished his commission in 1923 and died in 1970.


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