Memorial plaque to Captain J. D. Belgrave, killed in action during WWI.
The memorial consists of a landscape orientated, highly polished brass plaque attached to a wall mounted backboard. The engraved plaque incorporates two badges & a centrally positioned shield at the top with the inscription beneath. The whole area is enclosed by an engraved single-lined border.
Thge inscription reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
CAPTAIN JAMES DACRES BELGRAVE
OXFORD & BUCKS LIGHT INFANTRY AND ROYAL AIR FORCE
THE BELOVED SECOND SON OF
DALRYMPLE JAMES AND ISABEL BELGRAVE
BORN SEPT. 27TH 1896. KILLED IN ACTION NEAR ALBERT JUNE 13TH 1918
HE WAS WOUNDED AT LOOS SEP. 25TH 1915 WHILE SERVING WITH HIS
REGT. THE 52ND LIGHT INFANTRY. AWARDED THE M.C. JUNE 1917
AFTER 6 MONTHS SERVICE WITH SQUADRON 45. R.F.C. AND BAR
MAY 20TH 1918 AFTER A MONTH'S SERVICE WITH SQUADRON 61. R.A.F
BETWEEN THAT DATE AND THE DAY OF HIS DEATH
HE GAINED MANY AIR VICTORIES.
"THY WILL BE DONE." "He was the son of Dalrymple James Belgrave a Barrister at Law, (Inner Temple), born 1851 in Southsea, Hants., and his wife Isabella, born 1861 in Shotby Bridge, Co. Durham. James Dacres was born in 1896 in Kensington, London, in March 1901 he was, together with his parents lodging at 30, Gordon Place, Kensington, London, in the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Mary Abbots. In April 1911 James was a Schoolboy attending Bedford Grammar School and was residing at 22, Merton Road, Bedford together with his parents and brother Charles Dalrymple, born 1895 in Montreux, Switzerland. James was killed in aerial combat."
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Photograph of Captain J. D. Belgrave - (
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"Belgrave, the son of a barrister in the lnner Temple, was born in 1895. He came from Chinnor in Oxfordshire and after attending the Royal Military College at Sandhurst saw service in France with the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. In the late summer of 1916 he was seconded to the RFC and qualified as a pilot, before being posted to 45 Squadron. His squadron was operating the Sopwith 1S Strutter and suffering heavy losses. Despite flying a hopelessly outclassed machine, over the ext six months Belgrave and his observers claimed six German aeroplanes shot down, for which he was awarded a Military Cross.
Returning to England he served with 37 and 61 Home Defence Squadrons, twice engaging Gotha bombers without success. On 19 April 1918, he returned to the Western Front for a second tour of duty, as a flight commander with 60 Squadron, this time flying the SE5Sa. They were based at Boffles, northwest of Doullens. Sixty Squadron had a proud record, as Albert Ball VC had served in it during 1916 and then in 1917 Billy Bishop had won a VC while with the unit after claiming nearly 40 German machines.
It took a while for Belgrave to settle down and he was not to claim an enemy machine until a month after his arrival. In just under four weeks from the middle of May to the middle of June, though, he shot down another eleven German aircraft and was awarded a Bar to his MC. Unfortunately, on 13 June 1918, he went missing in unexplained circumstances.
He and three other SESs took off at the unearthly hour of four o’clock in the morning for a patrol. They dived on an enemy two-seater four miles east of Albert, driving it down out of control. Belgrave was last seen following it down into the cloud. The enemy machine was seen to crash by an anti-aircraft battery but Belgrave failed to return. Whether he was hit by the gunner of the two-seater or was brought down by ground fire remains a mystery.
Another, member of the patrol, Henry Gordon, a Canadian from Durham, Ontario, was on his first sortie. Despite his total inexperience, upon seeing Lieutenant R G Lewis force land behind the German lines due to engine failure, he very gallantly landed near him. A number of German soldiers arrived and opened fire. Gordon ran back to his machine, calling for Lewis to follow him. The latter though, walked towards the enemy party, presumably to allow Gordon to make his escape. Once airborne Gordon circled the scene but was unable to fire on the enemy, due to the fact they had surrounded the hapless Lewis. Gordon retuned with his machine shot about by ground fire. His selfless act surely deserved some recagnition but none was forthcoming. He failed to return from a patrol little more than a month later and was later reported as killed in action. The fourth member of the patrol, Lieutenant John MacVicker, was killed later the same month.
It is a sobering fact that of the four pilots in the patrol only one, R G Lewis, who was made prisoner of war, survived the Great War."
SOURCE - Airfields & Airmen: Somme , Mike O'Connor (ISBN: 085052864x)