andym
Posts: 1117
Joined: 7/12/2006
From: Kings Lynn UK
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i do beleive that there is still one remaining survivor of The Battle of Jutland,a one Henry Allingham,who is also one of the remaining founder members of the RAF having previously been of the RNAS.
Allingham was born in Clapham, South London, England and his father died when he was 14 months old. Brought up by his mother and grandparents, he attended a London County Council School before going to work as a trainee surgical instrument maker at Barts Hospital. He did not, however, find this job very interesting, and so left to work for a coachbuilder specialising in car bodies. Allingham remembers watching W. G. Grace playing cricket, around 1903-5 and also recalls seeing the City Imperial Volunteers return from the Second Boer War.
Allingham wanted to join the war effort in August 1914 as a dispatch rider, but his mother managed to persuade him to stay at home and look after her. After his mother died, however, Allingham enlisted with the RNAS. He became formally rated as an Air Mechanic Second Class on 21 September 1915 and was posted to Chingford before completing his training at Sheerness. His RNAS serial number was RNAS F8317.
After graduation, Allingham was drafted to the RNAS Air Station at Great Yarmouth where his job was aircraft maintenance. On 13 April 1916, King George V inspected the Air Station and its aircraft. He was disappointed when the king turned and left just before he would have had a chance to speak to him. Allingham also worked in Bacton, Norfolk, further up the coast, where night-flying was conducted.
Allingham was involved in supporting anti-submarine patrols. A typical patrol would last two to three days and would involve the manual labour of hoisting a seaplane in and out of the water by means of a deck-mounted derrick.
In the run-up to what later has become known as the Battle of Jutland, Allingham was ordered to join HMS Kingfisher. Onboard was a Sopwith Schneider seaplane that was used to look out for the German High Seas Fleet. Allingham's responsibilities included helping to launch the plane. Although the trawler was not directly involved in the battle (it shadowed the British Grand Fleet and then the High Seas Fleet), Allingham can still rightfully claim to be the last known survivor of that battle and can recall "seeing shells ricocheting across the sea."
In September 1917, Allingham, by now an Air Mechanic First Class, was posted to the Western Front (World War I) to join No. 12 Squadron (RNAS). This unit acted as a training squadron for other RNAS squadrons based on the Western Front. There is also some evidence that the squadron was involved in combat operations. When Allingham arrived at Petite-Synthe, both the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the RNAS were involved in the Ypres offensive. Allingham also instrumented the very first reconnaissance aircraft camera during World War I.
On November 12, 1917, he was posted to the Aircraft Depot at Dunkirk, where he remained for the rest of the war, on aircraft repair and recovery duties. He recalls being bombed from the air and shelled from the land and sea.
He transferred to the Royal Air Force when the RNAS and the RFC were merged on April 1, 1918. At that time he was ranked as a Rigger Aero, Aircraft Mechanic Second Class and was given a new service number: 208317. He is believed to be the last surviving founding member of the RAF. Allingham returned to the Home Establishment in February 1919 and was formally discharged to the RAF Reserve on 16 April 1919. He then joined Ford Motor Company, where he worked until his retirement.
Shortly after being discharged Henry Allingham married Dorothy Cater, whom he had met at Great Yarmouth. They moved to Eastbourne in 1960, where she died ten years later in 1970. The marriage lasted 51 years and produced two daughters, both of whom Allingham outlived. Henry now has six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 13 great-great-grandchildren and one great-great-great-grandchild, all but one of whom live in the United States.
During the Second World War, Allingham was in a reserved occupation and worked on a number of different projects. The most significant of these was perhaps the effort to provide an effective counter-measure to the German magnetic mines. During his Christmas lunch in 1939 he was called away to help come up with a system that would neutralise the mines and open the port of Harwich. Nine days later, he had successfully completed the task.
After World War II
Since Denis Goodwin of the World War One Veterans' Association tracked him down in 2001, Allingham has taken a prominent role in telling his story so that later generations will not forget. The 2003 Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal was launched on October 16, 2003 by Henry Allingham and model Nell McAndrew aboard the cruiser HMS Belfast. He was quoted as saying "They (the veterans) have given all they have got for the country ... I owe them ... we all owe them."
A ceremony at the Cenotaph in London on August 4, 2004 marked the 90th anniversary of Britain's entry into the First World War. This was attended by three other WWI veterans as well as Allingham—they were William Stone, Fred Lloyd and John Oborne. Allingham also marched past the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday in 2005 and laid wreaths at memorials in Saint-Omer on Armistice Day. That was the last time that a World War I veteran marched past the Cenotaph and it marked the end of an era. Remembrance Sunday 2006 was the first time since the Cenotaph was erected that World War I veterans were absent.
As the last surviving member of the RNAS, and the last living founder member of the RAF, Allingham was an honoured guest when the British Air Services Memorial was unveiled at Saint-Omer on 11 September 2004. The group of RAF technical trainees that joined him at this ceremony continue to visit Henry at his retirement home in Eastbourne, demonstrating the bond of respect that these men have for Mr Allingham, made even more remarkable since almost 90 years separate these young trainees from him. During this time, Allingham was given the Gold Medal of Saint-Omer, which marked the award of the Freedom of the Town.
He was invited by the International Holographic Portrait Archive to have his holographic portrait taken in November 2005, an offer which was accepted and his image was recorded for posterity in December 2005. At the same time an exhibition was being planned for London's floating naval museum on board HMS Belfast, entitled the Ghosts of Jutland. A copy of this portrait was donated to the museum and HRH The Duchess of Gloucester unveiled the portrait to mark the opening of the exhibition.
He was awarded the Freedom of his home town of Eastbourne by the mayor on 21 April 2006. He lived on his own until May 2006 when, one month before his 110th birthday and with failing eyesight, he moved to St Dunstan's, a charity for blind ex-service personnel, at Ovingdean, near Brighton. Aside from this, he is reportedly in good health with visitors remarking on his memory and voice. Between his 110th and 111th birthdays, Allingham made over 60 public appearances. Allingham attended the 1 July commemorations at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing in 2006. He did not attend the 2006 Remembrance Day parade on 11 November at the Cenotaph as he was in France at a wreath-laying ceremony and to receive the Freedom of Saint-Omer. He did, however, launch the Eastbourne Poppy Appeal before leaving for this trip.
On 18 April 2007, Allingham visited Wilnecote High School in Tamworth to answer students' questions about World War I after they wrote to veterans asking them about their experiences. In October 2007, he was honoured at the Pride of Britain Awards.
On his 111th birthday, a Royal Marines band serenaded Allingham on board the Victory before he returned with friends and relatives to the Queen's Hotel on Portsmouth seafront for afternoon tea. Asked how it felt, Allingham replied, "I'm pleased to be seeing another tomorrow. It's just the same as it was as at any age, it's no different. I'm happy to be alive and I'm looking forward to the celebrations. I never imagined I'd get to 111."
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