16 Facts About Lanoe Hawker

Lanoe Hawker was killed in a dogfight with the famous German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, who described him as "the British Boelcke".

Lanoe Hawker's parents were distant cousins; Hawker's father was of a cadet branch of the family resident in Australia since his own father, George Charles Hawker, emigrated in 1839, being elected Speaker of the House of Assembly, South Australia in 1860.

The Hawker family had a military tradition, with army commissions being held in each generation since the time of Elizabeth I A first cousin was Arthur Bagot, a naval officer in the First World War and Albert Medal recipient.

Lanoe Hawker was sent to Stubbington House School and at the age of 11 to the Royal Navy College in Dartmouth, but although highly intelligent and an enthusiastic sportsman, he suffered from a weak constitution, which led to jaundice.

On 4 March 1913, Lanoe Hawker was awarded Aviator's Certificate No 435 by the Royal Aero Club.

Lanoe Hawker was posted to France in October 1914, as a captain with No 6 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, flying Henri Farmans.

Lanoe Hawker used a tethered German balloon to help shield him from enemy ground fire as he made successive attacks.

Lanoe Hawker helped to invent the Prideaux disintegrating link machine-gun belt feed, and initiated the practice of putting fabric protective coverings on the tips of wooden propellers, the use of fur-lined thigh boots, and devising a primitive 'rocking fuselage' for target practice on the ground.

Lanoe Hawker was posted back to England in late 1915, with some seven victory claims, making him the first British flying ace, and a figure of considerable fame within the ranks of the RFC.

The first claim using this arrangement, though unconfirmed by the German Army, was by Leutnant Kurt Wintgens on 1 July 1915, some 225 miles over Luneville distant from where Lanoe Hawker had his three-victory success nearly a month later.

Lanoe Hawker was placed in command of the RFC's first fighter squadron, Number 24 based at Hounslow Heath Aerodrome and flying the Airco DH.

Lanoe Hawker then led the squadron back to Bertangles, north of the Somme in February 1916, where the squadron quickly helped counter the Fokker Eindecker monoplanes of the Imperial German Army's Fliegertruppe which were dominant over the Western Front in the run up to the Somme offensive in July 1916.

Around this time, Lanoe Hawker developed a ring gunsight and created a clamp and spring-clip device to hold the Lewis in place on the DH.

Lanoe Hawker designed sheepskin boots that reached to the upper thigh, known as "fug-boots," which became standard issue to combat the risk of frostbite at high altitude.

Andrews and Saundby followed him to back him up in his fight; Andrews drove off one of the Germans attacking Lanoe Hawker, then took bullets in his engine and glided out of the fight under Saundby's covering fire.

Lanoe Hawker was portrayed by Corin Redgrave in the 1971 film Von Richthofen and Brown.