In Loving Memory

I guess for most people of my age who were born within touching distance of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, childhood family memories will always be mixed with images of the annual Air Display…..the Fairey Rotodyne, Handley-Page 115, the incomparable Lightning and the seismic aftershock of the Avro Vulcan.

And I’m sure my great-uncle Charles was beguiled in a similar way by the first aeroplane flight in Britain – it was from Laffan’s Plain, Farnborough. Yes, Charles was just 12 years of age when Samuel Cody made that first powered flight of 424 metres, on October 16th 1908.

Cody was a pretty colourful character. He was a Texan, who began life as a cowboy and an actor….a friend of ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody. And his goatee beard topped by a waxed moustache, providing a 12-inch span, was more than enough to ‘hook’ Charles.

Family businesses in Staines, Camberley and Aldershot meant that young Charles was lucky enough to be able to spend most weekends and holidays mixing with the early aviators.

Then World War I broke out by accident. No European government wanted a general war, but most of the European powers preferred to fight rather than back down in the face of diplomatic provocation from their rivals.

The spark which provided the excuse to set the armies marching was the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, in the summer of 1914.

Austria immediately accused Serbia of instigating the murders and issued an ultimatum, whereupon Russia declared her support of Serbia. Once the Russians ordered general mobilization (and they 'had to' because they needed more time to move their forces to the frontiers then their enemies) - Austrian, French, and German mobilization orders followed in quick succession, each triggered by the other.

Between August 1914 and the introduction of the first Military Service Act three million men volunteered for military service.

On the 26th November 1914, with Heart of Midlothian comfortably leading the Scottish First Division, sixteen players exchanged their football boots for Army Issue. They enlisted to fight in France, inspiring many others to do the same.

Seven members of the Hearts team were killed.

Another, Paddy Crossan, was so badly injured that his right leg was labelled for amputation. He pleaded with the German surgeon, ‘I need my leg - I’m a footballer.’ His leg was saved but he died after the war from the effects of poison gas, which had destroyed his lungs.

With popular and mainstream political opposition to mandatory military service, Britain was the sole major European power not to have in place a policy of conscription when war began in August 1914. And despite Winston Churchill being an early advocate of introducing a form of conscription, it wasn’t until January 1916 that the British Government introduced the first of a series of Military Service Acts, which set out call-up regulations.

So when the letter finally dropped on the door mat and teenager Charles was called up, the subsequent question was an easy one to answer.

"Yes, I would like to join the Royal Flying Corps, thank you Sir. I have plenty of experience moving planes and I 'knew' Sam Cody".

In October 1917 great-uncle Charles was commissioned as a flying officer.

Lieut CR Tolley served operationally in France in 1918 with 65 Squadron bringing down a number of Fokker D VII’s……

‘Fearless, keen and joyous he revelled in the work, and was soon known as one of the most daring pilots in the 65th Flying Squadron’.

He remained on active service right up to the end of the Great War, when he was transferred to the Home Establishment, and posted to the Beaulieu Aerodrome, near Southampton.

Tragically Charles was killed in a flying accident in April 1919……aged just 22.

RETURNING, WE HEAR THE LARKS by ISAAC ROSENBERG

Sombre the night is.
And though we have our lives, we know
What sinister threat lies there.

Dragging these anguished limbs, we only know
This poison-blasted track opens on our camp -
On a little safe sleep.

But hark! joy - joy - strange joy.
Lo! heights of night ringing with unseen larks.
Music showering our upturned list’ning faces.

Death could drop from the dark
As easily as song -
But song only dropped,
Like a blind man’s dreams on the sand
By dangerous tides,
Like a girl’s dark hair for she dreams no ruin lies there,
Or her kisses where a serpent hides.