Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Bloody April’ campaign group of three awarded to FE2b pilot Second Lieutenant P. A. Russell, 22 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, late Lovat’s Scouts, who was shot down and killed by the German Ace Offizierstellvertreter E. Nathanael over Gouzeaucourt Wood, 2 April 1917

1914-15 Star (2.Lieut. P. A. Russell. 2/Lovat’s Scts.); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. P. A. Russell.) generally good very fine (3) £360-£400

Patrick Alfred Russell was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire in 1889. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Sherbourne College, and initially served during the Great War with the 2nd Battalion, Lovat’s Scouts in the Gallipoli theatre of war. He subsequently transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, gained his ‘Wings’ in September 1916, and was posted as a pilot for operational service to 22 Squadron (FE2b’s) in the French theatre of war.

The Squadron was primarily employed as a reconnaissance unit, and it was whilst flying photographic patrol that Russell and his observer (Lieutenant H. Loveland) were killed in action, 2 April 1917. Additional detail is provided in Bloody April... Black September:

‘Among the first off from the British side were five FE2b machines of 22 Squadron airborne from Chipilly, situated on the northern bank of the Somme River... Two of the FEs carried cameras in order to take photos of German dispositions opposite the British 4th Army front, while the other three would act as escort. The formation headed north-east, crossed the lines to the north of Peronne then flew in the direction of Gouzeaucourt, by which time one photo FE had returned home with engine trouble. Meantime Jasta 5 at Boistrancourt, 10 km to the south-east of Cambrai, took off and headed for the front, having been told of the approaching British aircraft....

Jasta 5 found the FEs, which had now overflown Gouzeaucourt (south-west of Cambrai), between Beaucamp and Gouzeaucourt Wood, just before 0830 and attacked. The FE crews, now joined by some DH2s of 24 Squadron, later reported a force of 18 Albatros Scouts in two groups and in the fight that followed, the remaining photo machine was hit, began to burn, then fell in flames. The victor was Offizierstellvertreter Edmund Nathanael, who would return home having secured his 5th victory. Seeing the FE start to burn, Captain C R Cox and Second Lieutenant L C Welford tried to drive off the Albatros, but Cox was himself heavily engaged....

The Albatros Scouts did break off the action, leaving the three surviving FEs to fly home, but the crew of the one lost were both dead. The pilot had been Second Lieutenant Patrick Alfred Russell, aged 27 from Northumberland, who had seen action at Gallipoli with a Yeomanry Regiment, and his observer, a Canadian, Lieutenant H Loveland, attached to the RFC from the 78th Canadian Infantry Battalion.’

Nathanael went on to claim 15 victories during the Great War, and both Russell and Loveland are buried in the Villers Hill British Cemetery, Villers-Guislain.