The fascinating Great War medals to the two Foot brothers of Pulborough, Sussex, the eldest being the 1914-1915 Star to the fighter ace, Lieutenant later Major E.L. Foot, M.C., Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and Royal Flying Corps, later Royal Air Force.During 1916-1917, Foot flew operationally in fighter aircraft out on the Western Front as a flight commander with Nos.11 Squadron, 60 Squadron, and 56 Squadron. All the while alongside another flight commander, Albert Ball V.C., in fact the two became best friends. Whilst engaged during the Battle of the Somme, between 9 September and 15 September 1916, he shot down three enemy aircraft whilst with 11 Squadron, and shot down another and drove down one more whilst with 60 Squadron, only to narrowly evade death when shot down in flames by the German ace Hans Imelman on 26 October 1916. Posted home in early November, he had amassed some 90 aerial sorties, and his Military Cross, an action specific award, was gazetted on 15 November 1916, being earn mostly for his final victory on 21 October 1916, when flying a single-seater scout, he dived on to five hostile machines, which were flying at about 2,500 feet, and drove down one to the ground as a wreck. He returned to the front briefly during the Spring of 1917, flying during the Battle of Arras alongside Albert Ball, only to be posted home a mere few days before the aviation hero was killed. He returned to the front again in the Autumn of 1918. Post war he became a commercial pilot flying the London to Paris passenger route, and was a noted competitor in popular air races of the day, only to be killed in a crash during the first Grosvenor Challenge Cup in June 1923. His younger brother, 2nd Lieutenant D.E. Foot, 8th (Service) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, was present out on the Western Front from 1 October 1916, only to be killed in action a few days later whilst embroiled in the Battle of Loos on 21 October 1916.
1914-1915 Star; (LIEUT. E.L. FOOT. OXF. & BUCKS. L.I. ATTD. R.F.C.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Group of 3: 1914-1915 Star; (2.LIEUT. D.E. FOOT. R.BERKS.R.); British War Medal and Victory Medal; (2. LIEUT. D.E. FOOT.), these recently housed together in a frame with three individually displayed miniature medals representative of his entitlement.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Ernest Leslie Foot was born on 19 May 1895 in Pulborough, Sussex, the son of Ernest George Foot (1859-1931), a surgeon, and Maud Mary Cooper (1863-1942). He was the first of three children, the others being Douglas Eric Foot (1897-1915), and Enid Maud Foot (1898-1990). Both brothers would-be educated at Epsom Public School, with the elder going on to Uppingham.
Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War he was commissioned on 27 October 1914 as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant into the 9th (Reserve) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, being then promoted to Lieutenant on 28 December 1914. Foot applied for service as a flying observer and on being attached to the Royal Flying Corps, was posted to Netheravon from 30 April 1915, and then saw service out on the Western Front from 10 July 1915, but having applied for pilot training, was then posted to the Military School of Flying at Farnborough on 28 October 1915, and gained his pilots licence (No.2257) on 20 December 1915 when flying in a Maurice Farman biplane.
Foot was officially transferred to the General List for service with the Royal Flying Corps and posted to No.15 Reserve Squadron on 29 December 1915, and having been appointed a flying officer on 10 February 1916, then returned to the Western Front on being posted out to join No.8 Squadron on 23 May 1916 (a newspaper from November 1916 would state March 1916). A little over a month later on 15 June 1916 he was appointed as temporary Captain in the position of a flight commander with No.11 Squadron. It was on his joining this squadron that he befriend Albert Ball, a fellow flight commander, and becoming that pilot’s best friend up until Ball’s death in action on 7 May 1917, by which time the latter had earned the Victoria Cross, three Distinguished Service Orders and the Military Cross, having amassed 44 aerial victories to his name.
Whilst engaged during the Battle of the Somme, between 9 September and 15 September 1916, and flying in a Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2b aircraft (Serial Number: 7016), Foot shot down three enemy aircraft. The day after his third aerial victory, he was transferred to No.60 Squadron. Here he joined Albert Ball once again, the latter having transferred to the squadron with elements of No.11 Squadron back on 23 August 1916. On his joining No.60 Squadron, a French SPAD S.VII was on trial with the unit, and Foot used this to destroy his fourth enemy aircraft, an Albatros two-seater on 28 September 1916. The squadron was generally equipped with the Nieuport 17 single engined fighter, and it was in one of these that Foot drove down a Roland C.II on 21 October 1916. However, despite having amassed five aerial victories, and now ranked as an ace, things were on the other foot when Foot was shot down in flames by the German ace Hans Imelman on 26 October 1916. Imelmann would gain six aerial victories up until his death on 23 January 1917, with Foot being his third. Miraculously, and despite his aircraft going down in flames, Foot some how crash landed in friendly territory with himself unscathed, and walked away from his burning aircraft. On 3 November 1916 he was sent home to rest and recuperate, having amassed some 90 aerial sorties.
The announcement of Foot’s award of the Military Cross was mostly action specific to his fifth victory on 21 October 1916, and was published together with its citation in the London Gazette on 14 November 1916. The citation reads as follows: ‘For conspicuous skill and gallantry. When flying a single-seater scout, he dived on to five hostile machines, which were flying at about 2,500 feet, and drove down one to the ground as a wreck. On many other occasions he has shown great determination when fighting enemy machines.’
News of his decoration quickly reached local papers, with the Sussex Daily News for 15 November 1916 publishing the citation, and the same newspaper, on 18 November 1916, published an article titled: ‘Pulborough Flying Officer Wins Decoration - Hero of over 90 Aerial Flights’. The article goes on to state: ‘Among the most recent recipients of the Military Cross is Captain Ernest Leslie Foot, Royal Flying Corps, son of Mr. and Mrs. E.G. Foot, of Church Hill, Pulborough. It is one of the traditions of the corps that individual exploits shall not be revealed, and it is in accordance with this that Captain Foot has not mentioned, even to his parents, the particular incident which won for him the honour. He is only 21 and had a great reputation in the corps as an absolutely fearless flyer. He has taken part in over 90 aerial flights and has figured in numerous successful raids. Educated at Uppingham, Captain Foot obtained a commission in September, 1914, and after only six weeks received his second star. In May, 1915, he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, and he went to France in the following July as an observer. He obtained his pilot’s certificate in December last, and again proceeded to France last March and has been there ever since, flying almost every day. Pulborough will congratulate him on the honour he has gained, and Mr. and Mrs. Foot are naturally very proud of their son’s success. Mr. E.G. Foot is well known as the medals officer at Mrs. Johnstone’s Bignor Park Red Cross Hospital, where Mrs. Foot is also a regular voluntary worker.’
Having been transferred to the Home Establishment, Foot operated as part of No.17 Wing with the School of Aerial Gunnery from 6 November 1916, and was a Flying Instructor with the Central Training School from 17 February 1917, before being posted to No.56 Squadron on 11 March 1917, where Albert Ball had transferred the month previously, and like Ball, Foot was a flight commander. On 13 March 1917, the squadron, which was then stationed at London Colney in Hertfordshire, became the first unit to be equipped with the new fighter aircraft, the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5. On 31 March, No. 56 Squadron received orders to relocate to the RFC HQ at Saint Omer, France. By 8 April, the entire Squadron had made the move from London Colney, with the pilots having their photograph in their S.E.5s taken before they left on the 7 April. From Saint-Omer, the squadron relocated to Vert Galant on 20 April to support the Second Battle of Arras and flew their first mission on the 22 April. Its arrival at the front with the latest fighter, combined with the unusually high proportion of experienced pilots in its ranks, led to rumours among its German opponents that the squadron was an 'Anti-Richthofen Squadron', specifically dedicated to the removal of the Red Baron.
On 1 May 1917, Foot was posted back home to the Eastern Group Non Effective Pool, the reason unknown, however only, only six days later, his friend, Captain Albert Ball, V.C., D.S.O.**, M.C., was killed in an accident out in France owing to engine failure during aerial combat. Ball’s death led the German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen to remark that he was "by far the best English flying man". His death sparked a wave of national mourning and posthumous recognition, including the Victoria Cross.
Foot was posted to No.1 Training Squadron from 13 June 1917, and was then posted to the School of Special Flying at Gosport from 2 August 1917, for further training as an instructor. It was here that he was injured in an aircraft accident on 24 September 1917, and he did not return to duty until 13 February 1918. The following day he was posted as an instructor to No.49 Training Squadron.
With the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918, Foot transferred across, and on 30 April 1918 he was appointed a Wing Major with No.45 Training Squadron. Foot returned to the Western Front with No.70 Squadron from 4 August 1918, flying the Sopwith Camel., but was posted back to the home establishment on 12 October 1918, and was with the headquarters of No.16 Training Group when the war came to an end.
From 1 February 1919 he was with No.47 Training Development Squadron, and with with No.23 Wing in the South Eastern Area from 24 February 1919, and eventually left the service on 9 April 1919 in the rank of Major.
After leaving the Royal Air Force, Foot joined the aviation firm of Handley Page Transport company as a commercial pilot flying the London to Paris passenger route, finally leaving the company in April 1923 to take a position with the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a test pilot and instructor with their flying school operated on behalf of the Royal Air Force Reserve. As such, and to facilitate this, Foot was granted a commission as a probationary flying officer (Class “A”) with the General Duties Branch of the Royal Air Force Reserve.
Foot became a noted competitor in popular air races of the day. In July 1921 he took part in the Sixth Aerial Derby, organised by the Royal Aero Club, flying a 100-mile circuit round London twice, in a Martinsyde F.4 fitted with a 300 hp Hisdpano-Suiza engine. Unfortunately engine problems caused his retirement during the first lap. Then in September 1921 he led the “White Team” in a relay team event for the Air League Challenge Cup, as part of the first Aviation Race Meeting held by the Royal Aero Club at Croydon Aerodrome. Again mechanical problems meant that his team had to withdraw. Things looked however when in June 1922, at the Third Croydon Aviation Race Meeting, he took 3rd place in the First Sprint Handicap flying the Martinsyde F.4.
A year later, in June 1923, Foot was entered into the first Grosvenor Challenge Cup. He was sponsored by Sir George Stanley White, the Managing Director of the Bristol Company, and flew the Bristol M.1D monoplane, registered G-EAVP, fitted with a 100 hp Bristol Lucifer engine. The race took place in stages, beginning at Lympne, Kent, with stops at Croydon, Birmingham, and Bristol, before returning to Croydon, and ending at Lympne. The race occurred on 23 June 1923.
When Foot landed at Filton Aerodrome, Bristol, having made it through the third stage, his aircraft had developed a fuel leak, and Foot appeared affected by petrol fumes. However, after repairs he set off again, but his aircraft crashed on the Stonehill Road between Chertsey and Cobham in Surrey, and burst into flames.
This was the first race of the season, and according to the Leeds Mercury of 27 June 1923, ‘his monoplane crashed and burst into flames. An eye-witness said that something seemed to go wrong with one of the wings of the plane, and though the pilot appeared to endeavour to drop into some trees, he crashed into the road.’ Foot was killed instantly, and his body was buried in Pulborough Cemetery on 27 June 1923. He had only been married a few months. Foot’s Military Cross, together with his British War Medal and Victory Medal were sold by John Hayward in February 1972.
Douglas Eric Foot, the second son of Ernest George Foot (1859-1931), a surgeon, and Maud Mary Cooper, was born during 1897 in Pulborough, Sussex, and was educated at Epsom Public School. Like his elder brother, he was commissioned shortly after the outbreak of the First World War as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant on 4 January 1915, for service with the 8th (Service) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment.
His battalion saw service out on the Western Front from 8 August 1915, however Foot was not present out there until 1 October 1915, when his battalion was heavily involved in the Battle of Loos. Only a few days after his joining the battalion, he was killed in action on 13 October 1915, and having no known grave, he is commemorated by name on the Loos Memorial.
