Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The important campaign group of nine awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Alexander Bannerman, Bt., Royal Engineers, pioneer aviator and Commandant of the Air Corps and Air Battalion, R.E., 1910-12, in which latter capacity he oversaw the transition of his command to the fledgling Royal Flying Corps

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Lieut. Sir., Bt., R.E.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Capt. Sir, Bt., R.E.); 1914-15 Star (Major Sir, Bt., R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col. Sir, Bt.), officially impressed naming as per the recipient’s late claim in 1927; Coronation 1911; Japan, Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with central cabochon, and rosette on riband; Japan, Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with cabochons, and rosette on riband, the reverse of the right arm privately inscribed, ‘Capt. Sir A. Bannerman, Bt., R.E.’; Japan, Russo-Japanese War Medal 1904-05, this too privately inscribed, ‘Capt. Sir A. Bannerman, Bt., R.E.’, mounted court-style as worn, Boer War clasp backstraps and side-carriages altered for mounting purposes, and one or two cabochons chipped on the eighth, otherwise generally very fine or better (9) £4000-5000

Alexander Bannerman was born at Brackley, Northamptonshire in December 1871, a scion of an ancient Scottish family whose roots could be traced back to the reign of King David II.

Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was gazetted to the Royal Engineers as a 2nd Lieutenant in August 1891 and was advanced to Lieutenant in August 1894. Subsequently witnessing active service with the 1st Telegraphic Division, R.E., in South Africa, 1899-1902, Bannerman was present in the advance on Kimberley, in operations in the Orange River Colony and Cape Colony, including the action at Colesburg, and in the Transvaal, and was mentioned in despatches by Lord Roberts (London Gazette 4 September 1901 refers). He had, meanwhile, been advanced to Captain, and succeeded his father as the 11th Baronet of Elsick in Kincardineshire.

In 1904-05, he was attached to the Japanese Army in an official capacity, and was an observer in the operations in Manchuria, where he was present at the siege and fall of Port Arthur, work that gained him the Brevet of Major in lieu of services ‘rendered by him when acting as Military Attache with the Japanese Forces operating in Manchuria during the recent Russo-Japanese Campaign’ (London Gazette 16 March 1906 refers); so, too, the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class, and Russo-Japanese War Medal. And in 1907, having taken up an appointment in the War Office, he was attached to Prince Fushimi’s Staff during the latter’s visit to England, work that gained him the additional distinction of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class.

But it was as a result of his next appointment that his name was guaranteed a place in the annals of British military history, namely as Commandant of the Air Corps, R.E. from October 1910, a position he inherited from a another pioneer aviator, Colonel J. E. Capper, and which corps was re-titled the Air Battalion in April 1911. And it was an appropriate enough appointment, given that he had already taken up ‘ballooning as a sport, owned the Nebula, and took part in many of the Aero Club contests at Hurlingham’ (Aeronautics, November 1910, refers). Just how far back his interest in ballooning extended remains uncertain, but some sources suggest he was attached to the Balloon Section, R.E. in South Africa and added further “flight time” to his agenda at the defence of Port Arthur in 1905. One thing, however, is certain - he led by example, logged one early flight as a passenger with Colonel S. F. Cody at Farnborough in January 1911, and was granted his own Royal Aero Club pilot’s certificate in April 1912 (Certificate No. 213), taken on a Bristol Biplane at Brooklands.

In announcing the establishment of an Air Corps in October 1910, the War Office stated that it was time for expansion in “aeroplaning” as well as ballooning, arguably the first sensible decision taken by that body in the history of British military aeronautics. And on 8 February 1911, a further Army Order took the process a step further:

‘It has been decided to organize an Air Battalion to which will be entrusted the duty of creating a body of expert airmen, organized in such a way as to facilitate the formation of units ready to take the field with troops, and capable of expansion.’

And so the foundation stone of the Royal Flying Corps was laid, although Whitehall remained tight on the purse strings in terms of aircraft and equipment, a matter of deep frustration to Bannerman, as was Mervyn O’Gorman, the Superintendent of a newly separated Aircraft Factory. Essentially his new command comprised an Airship Company at Farnborough and an Aeroplane Company at Larkhill, afterwards No. 1 and No. 3 Squadrons, R.F.C., and a roll call of 14 officers, 23 N.C.Os and 155 men. But to begin with the latter section was equipped with just three airworthy “mounts”, and it was thanks to Bannerman taking the initiative that aircraft numbers quickly climbed. Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert takes up the story in The Third Service:

‘Holding the view that his was a research and design establishment, O’Gorman conceived that it was no part of his duty to supply the Army with aeroplanes. Bannerman, on the other hand, needed aeroplanes to train the budding aviators who were now joining the Air Battalion in some strength. This unit had been formed in April 1911 but it possessed no more than three aeroplanes, none of them very serviceable. As aeroplanes were not to be expected from the factory, and as Major Bannerman could not get any satisfaction through the normal channels, at a dinner party he took advantage of being placed next to Miss Haldane, the sister of the War Secretary, and poured out his woes to her; she informed Mr. Haldane and as a result six Bristol Biplanes were ordered. These aircraft provided the initial equipment of the Air Battalion and enabled military flying training to proceed.’

So, too, the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps, for following a thorough examination of military aviation issues by the Committee of Imperial Defence, at the request of the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, it was decided, in April 1912, to create the R.F.C., and between then and August of that year Bannerman oversaw the smooth transferral of the Air Battalion’s equipment and personnel. Afterwards placed on the Retired List, his role as a founding father of that distinguished corps was later marked by the establishment of “Bannerman’s Wing” at R.A.F. Cardington.

Recalled on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Bannerman went out to France with 37th Division in late July 1915 and, having returned home to take command of the 2/5th North Staffordshire Regiment in September 1916, took his new unit back to France in the following year - his MIC entry, however, reveals he did not apply for his Great War awards until December 1927.

Bannerman, who published The Man with Rubber Soles (1920) and Leaders of the Blind (1921), eventually retired to South Africa, where he died in Cape Province in March 1934, aged 63 years.