66 Facts About Billy Bishop

Billy Bishop was officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian and British Empire ace of the war, and received a Victoria Cross.

William Avery Bishop was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, on 8 February 1894, blond, blue-eyed, and weighing 11 pounds.

Billy Bishop was the third of four children born to William Avery Bishop Sr.

Billy Bishop was the Registrar of Grey County and was appointed to the post after backing the winning Liberal Party candidate in the national elections of 1896.

Billy Bishop was consequential enough to be invited to a dinner for British dignitaries hosted by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Billy Bishop's other brother, Kilbourn, was born in 1886, but died in 1893, the year before Billy's birth.

Sister Louise, to whom Billy Bishop became very close, was born in 1895, a year after him.

Young Billy Bishop grew up in the inland port city of Owen Sound on Georgian Bay, touted to be "the next Liverpool".

Billy Bishop was distinguished from the other children on several counts.

Billy Bishop attended Beech Street School near his home and later at Owen Sound Collegiate Institute.

Billy Bishop was slender and of average height, but undeniably handsome, with a firm jaw, full lips, and straight nose over a pencil moustache.

Billy Bishop was less successful at his studies; he would abandon any subject he could not easily master, and was often absent from class.

In 1910, at the age of 16, after reading a newspaper article, Billy Bishop built a glider out of cardboard, wooden crates, bedsheets, and twine, and made an attempt to fly off the roof of his three-story house.

Billy Bishop was dug, unharmed, out of the wreckage by his sister Louise.

Once she met Billy Bishop, they were smitten with one another, which greatly annoyed her parents.

On his 17th birthday, 8 February 1911, Billy Bishop applied to the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, where his brother Worth had graduated in 1903.

Billy Bishop placed 42nd of the 43 candidates admitted to the three-year school.

Billy Bishop spent a hard first year during 1911 and 1912, struggling academically.

Billy Bishop suffered severe hazing from seniors; RMC regulations barred him from retaliatory fisticuffs.

Billy Bishop journeyed to Toronto to inform Margaret Burden of his decision before reporting for duty.

Billy Bishop was placed in charge of the regimental machine guns.

Billy Bishop gave her his RMC ring as a symbol of his troth.

Billy Bishop's unit left Canada for England on 6 June 1915 on board the requisitioned cattle ship Caledonia as part of a convoy.

When Billy Bishop was told it would be a year before he could train as a pilot, he accepted the immediate chance to become an aerial observer.

Billy Bishop suffered a bruised foot; the pilot was only bruised.

Three days later, Billy Bishop took a check ride in a new aircraft.

Billy Bishop emerged from hospital to join his squadron in adjusting to the realities of the infant military science of aerial warfare.

When Billy Bishop emerged from hospital, there were already reports of German Fokker Eindecker monoplanes that could fire a machine gun through their propeller arc without striking a blade.

The rest of Billy Bishop's time as an observer was a string of mishaps.

Billy Bishop returned to England in September 1916, and, with the influence of St Helier, was accepted for training as a pilot at the Central Flying School at Upavon on Salisbury Plain.

In November 1916 after receiving his wings, Billy Bishop was attached to No 37 Squadron RFC at Stow Maries, Essex, flying the BE.

Billy Bishop was officially appointed to flying officer duties on 8 December 1916.

Billy Bishop disliked flying at night over London, searching for German airships, and he soon requested a transfer to France.

On 17 March 1917, Billy Bishop arrived at 60 Squadron at Filescamp Farm near Arras, where he flew the Nieuport 17 fighter.

Billy Bishop had trouble controlling his run-down aircraft, was nearly shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and became separated from his group.

Billy Bishop shot down and mortally wounded a Lieutenant Theiller, but his engine failed in the process.

Billy Bishop landed in no man's land, 300 yards from the German front line.

On 30 March 1917, Billy Bishop was named a flight commander with a temporary promotion to captain a few days later.

Billy Bishop soon realized that this could eventually see him shot down; after one patrol, a mechanic counted 210 bullet holes in his aircraft.

On 2 June 1917, Billy Bishop flew a solo mission behind enemy lines to attack a German-held aerodrome, where he claimed that he shot down three aircraft that were taking off to attack him and destroyed several more on the ground.

Billy Bishop's VC was one of two awarded in violation of the warrant requiring witnesses, and since the German records have been lost and the archived papers relating to the VC were lost as well, there is no way of confirming whether there were any witnesses.

Billy Bishop returned home on leave to Canada in fall 1917, where he was acclaimed a hero and helped boost the morale of the Canadian public, who were growing tired of the war.

On 17 October 1917, Billy Bishop married his longtime fiancee, Margaret Eaton Burden.

Billy Bishop downed a German observation plane in his first combat since August 1917, and followed with two more the next day.

Billy Bishop was not pleased with the order coming so soon after his return to France.

On that morning, Billy Bishop decided to fly one last solo patrol.

Billy Bishop established an importing firm, Interallied Aircraft Corporation, and a short-lived passenger air service with fellow ace William Barker, but after legal and financial problems, and a serious crash, the partnership and company were dissolved.

In January 1936, Billy Bishop was appointed the first Canadian air vice-marshal.

Billy Bishop was so successful in this role that many applicants had to be turned away.

Billy Bishop created a system for training pilots across Canada and became instrumental in setting up and promoting the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which trained over 167,000 airmen in Canada during the Second World War.

However, Billy Bishop remained active in the aviation world, predicting the phenomenal growth of commercial aviation postwar.

Billy Bishop wrote a second book at this time, Winged Peace, advocating international control of global air power.

Billy Bishop died in his sleep on 11 September 1956, at the age of 62, while wintering in Palm Beach, Florida.

Billy Bishop was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the King's Birthday Honours List of 1 June 1944.

Captain Billy Bishop, who had been sent out to work independently, flew first of all to an enemy aerodrome; finding no machines about, he flew on to another aerodrome about three miles southeast, which was at least 12 miles the other side of the line.

Billy Bishop attacked these from about fifty feet, and a mechanic, who was starting one of the engines, was seen to fall.

One of the machines got off the ground, but at a height of 60 feet, Captain Billy Bishop fired 15 rounds into it at very close range, and it crashed to the ground.

Billy Bishop's machine was very badly shot about by machine gun fire from the ground.

Billy Bishop has destroyed no less than 45 hostile machines within the past 5 months, frequently attacking enemy formations single-handed, and on all occasions displaying a fighting spirit and determination to get to close quarter with his opponents which have earned the admiration of all in contact with him.

Billy Bishop's life has been the subject of a number of works in media.

Billy Bishop Goes to War feature film and Canadian musical, written by John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with the actor Eric Peterson in 1978.

Bishop's life was depicted in the 1978 Canadian play Billy Bishop Goes to War.

In one particularly contentious scene, his mechanic claims that the damage to his fighter was confined to a small circle in a non-critical area, implying that Billy Bishop had landed his aircraft off-field, shot holes in it, and flown home with claims of combat damage.

The mechanic insisted that Billy Bishop had not fabricated the damage.

Canadian authors Dan McCaffery and David Bashow presented circumstantial evidence that Billy Bishop did not fake the attack.

Billy Bishop cites examples in which masses of data were destroyed by retreating German forces and instances of the German former air ministry having been guilty of "obfuscation" in denying losses when casualties had been incurred.