The Famous & Historically Critical
22nd August 1914 ”Von Kluck & Mons Retreat” reconnaissance.
1914 Star & Bar Trio. (MID)
To:
2nd Lt-CAPTAIN, VIVIAN HUGH NICHOLAS WADHAM
1st HAMPSHIRE Regt & No. 3 Squadron, ROYAL FLYING CORPS.
KILLED IN ACTION, 17th JANUARY 1916.
One of the first pilots to arrive in France on 13th August 1914 in a Bleriot XI-2. monoplane together with his “back seater” engineer.
349. Sgt F.C Whenman, who’s RFC & RAF medals ,
1914 Star & Bar Trio, LSGC & MSM, Defence & War Medals
are also listed here.
[THE STORY OF A WORLD CHANGING & PIVOTAL AVIATOR]
“2nd Lt - Captain, V.H.N. Wadham”.
1st Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment & Royal Flying Corps.
Perhaps only once in a lifetime does one see a medal group awarded to a man who was not only “first” or “among the first” in so many areas of civil & military aviation, but who was, just by random chance, also fated to be the person who without any doubt changed the course of world history and was perhaps the most pivotally important officer of The Great War.
“The Right Peg, of The Right Shape, in The Right Hole, on The Right Day”
Here is his simple but totally priceless medal group....and below the medals we tell his incredible story.
[THE MEDALS]
All are still on their original ribbons probably fitted in the 1920’s by Captain Wadham’s father.
1914 Star & Bar
2. LIEUT: V.H.N. WADHAM. HAMPS:R. ATTD: R.F.C.
A superb & undisturbed medal with much original red mint colour. The star has the incredibly rare “attached RFC” nomenclature which is only seen on the tiny handful of medals issued to the very first pre-commissioned members of the Army who then went on to form the fledgling Royal Flying Corps in 1912.
Complete with its original August-November clasp.
War Medal
CAPT. V.H.N. WADHAM.
(Totally original & uncleaned with an even ebony black time developed patina) With it’s original Oak Leaf M.I.D. emblem.
(London Gazette, 17th February 1915)
Victory Medal
CAPT. V.H.N. WADHAM.
The Very Rare *1st Issue “Bronze Finish” type with the separate “braised in” barrel suspension) *This early variety was only issued to a very few officers and due to its negative reception this dull looking issue, which Winston Churchill described as, “looking like something not fit to go into a Christmas Cracker” was quickly replaced by the common “brass gilt” type with integral suspension.
[THE COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE & SCROLL]
The original commemorative plaque & scroll have so far not shown up.
( DO YOU HAVE THEM IN YOUR COLLECTION ? IF SO, PLEASE CALL US TODAY ! )
We have therefore produced a temporary plaque & scroll to commemorate the sacrifice of Captain Wadham.
This special plaque has an inlaid sterling silver panel in the name aperture which reads:
“CAPTAIN VIVIAN H.N. WADHAM. ROYAL FLYING CORPS”
The .925 Sterling silver panel was inserted by a specialist engineering company and is made from a 1916 silver halfcrown of George V.
The scroll is a hand lettered facsimile executed to original standard by our graphologist.
[BIOGRAPHY] 1891-1916
Vivian Hugh Nicholas Wadham was the son of Hugh Davison Wadham, a wealthy London Stockbroker and his wife Mabel Emily Wadham, of Thamesfield, Shepperton, Middlesex. Vivian Wadham was born in Teddington on New Year)s Eve, 31st December 1891. He was educated at Malvern College, where he became a member of the Officer Training Corps. Following this he gained his commission in the 1st Hampshire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant on 18th September 1911.
[1912 & TRAINING WITH TOMMY SOPWITH AT BROOKLANDS]
At the dawn of regulated civil aviation and after several months of training by Fred Raynham & Tommy Sopwith at Brooklands and following an examination on a Farman Biplane he gained his Royal Aero Club Flying Licence No.243 on 16th July 1912.
He was also the man who while training at Brooklands in early 1912 had introduced the young Australian engineer Harry Hawker to Tommy Sopwith and his chief engineer Fred Sigrist. These were introductions that changed the course of British & world aviation.
Tommy Sopwith had only opened his Brooklands flying school on 1st February 1912 with the offer of flying training to licence standard for the then very considerable sum of £75.
Vivian Wadham was one of the first pupils to join the school.
The Royal Flying Corps was formed ten weeks later on 13th April 1912, which was just two days before The Titanic hit the iceberg and sank on 15th April.
A FACSIMILE OF VIVIAN WADHAM’s FLYING LICENCE. (Do You Have His Original ?) Thus, Viv’ Wadham was one of the very first civilian trained & newly licensed pilots to join the fledgling RFC and on 5th December 1912 he became one of the world’s very first military aviators, when he was attached to the RFC as a flying officer.
He is seen here (standing, 2nd from left) in 1912 at Eastchurch with some of the original members of the RFC & RNAS which include Charles Sampson & Geoffrey De Havilland.
During these early days of the RFC he regularly took his aero engineers on impromptu “familiarisation” flights in his normal Bleriot XI-2. His most famous passenger, while serving as a basic airman was non other than the young James Byford McCudden, who later won a Victoria Cross and became the leading British fighter ace of WW1.
Wadham clearly encouraged McCudden in his aim to become a pilot and he makes several mentions of his early flights with Viv Wadham in his famous book, “Flying Fury, Five Years in the RFC”.
[TO WAR, 13th AUGUST 1914]
As well being one of the very first founding members of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912, Vivian Wadham was also among the first few pilots to fly from Salisbury Plain, via Swingate Down, above Dover to Amiens, France with 3 Squadron RFC in a Bleriot XI-2 Monoplane.
This historic arrival was on 13th August 1914, just 9 days after the declaration of World War I.
He was accompanied on this historic flight by his engineer, 349 Sergeant F.C. Whenman, who later earned an LSGC & Meritorious Service Medal in the RAF. Whenman went on to serve as a Squadron Leader in the RAF during WW2. Miraculously, we now also have all Sgt Whenman’s medals which have recently been reunited with those of his pilot, Captain Wadham.
[THE CRITICAL & WORLD CHANGING OBSERVATION]
Just nine days later and at the very dawn of the Great War on the morning of 22nd August 1914, 2nd Lt V.H.N. WADHAM, flew a world changing observation sortie in a Bleriot XI-2 with Captain Lionel E.O. Charlton that without any doubt whatsoever immediately changed the course of world history when they saw that German General Alexander von Kluck was fast preparing his army to surround the BEF, cutting it off from its essential north western supply routes to the sea.
This was an observation that directly contradicted all of the other current intelligence which said that the bulk of German forces were positioned to the east of Brussels.
The British High Command under Field Marshall Sir John French listened to the Wadham & Charlton report and immediately, that same day, started the now famous retreat at Mons.
This withdrawal of troops initially destroyed morale but saved the lives of over 100,000 soldiers of the B.E.F. and directly prevented the British Army from being surrounded and losing access to its lines of supply from the coast.
Wadham and Charlton's work on 22nd August 1914 totally prevented the immediate and complete annihilation of the British Army during the first weeks of the war and the subsequent and inevitable loss of the war to Germany.
The two men had landed in a field in a small village called Grammont where the mayor and some villagers had run out to greet them and to see the then rare sight of an aeroplane. Asked if they had seen any German troops, the mayor confirmed that there were large numbers of cavalry in the woodland area which was a 15 minute walk down the road. Unknowingly, Wadham & Charlton had landed right in the middle of the German army ! They immediately restarted the aircraft engine and took off over the woodland in an attempt to fully assess the situation. From 500 feet, they immediately saw a huge number of enemy troops who were eating lunch in the woodland, who immediately began firing at the aircraft. Charlton returned the fire from his rifle and dropped a number of mills grenades from the aircraft onto the troops below.
And, so it was, also from this aircraft, on this day, that the very first aerial gun shots were fired & the very first explosives dropped onto an enemy force from an aeroplane in any war anywhere.
Their return flight back to their base via Ath and Mons was punctuated by several more bursts of enemy ground rifle fire which visibly damaged the spars & fabric of the aircraft while in flight. Upon approaching the British lines at Mons from a northerly direction, further shots were fired at the aircraft by our own troops. Upon landing at base it became apparent that there were over 40 bullet holes in the aircraft, one of which had narrowly avoided killing Charlton when it had lodged in his seat belt! Charlton hurried away to deliver the critical report while Wadham inspected the damaged Bleriot.
They were both VERY lucky to survive.
This sortie is thus celebrated as the most pivotally important reconnaissance flight in aviation history.
For this sortie, 2nd Lt Vivian Wadham received a Mention in Despatches by the C-in-C Sir John French.
The late Captain Vivian Hugh Nicholas Wadham therefore stands as one of the historically most important and pivotal figures of all time in the world of military aviation.
[No. 3 SQUADRON’s FIRST KILL. 5th February 1915]
On 5th February 1915, whilst flying a Morane Type L “Parasol” (1848) with 3 Squadron, Capt Wadham and his observer Lt Arthur Drummond “Bosky” Borton were credited with No.3 Squadron’s first ever kill, which in turn was one of the RFC’s very earliest combat successes when they forced down a Lille based German Aviatik. The enemy aeroplane forced landed behind British lines at Merville.
Lt Borton, armed with only a LeEnfield .303 rifle fired off a sustained volley at the enemy aircraft from ultra close range with the conclusive shots being fired at a distance of just 50 Feet ! When their Commanding Officer Major Salmond reported the victory to GHQ the two airmen were congratulated by The Commander in Chief.
[A SERIOUS EARLY ACCIDENT] 27th February 1915.
On 27th February, while again flying in Morane L (1848), Wadham and Borton were involved in a serious accident. The crash happened while 3 Squadron was flying out of the advanced landing field at Serches from their aerodrome at Fère-en-Tardenois. 3 Squadron moved there from Amiens on 5th October. Wadham broke his thigh and Borton broke his neck in three places when their aircraft stalled at low level on take off and hit the ground. James McCudden witnessed the incident and was one of the airmen who rushed to the crash site to extricate the two badly injured men from the wreckage.
Viv Wadham was shipped back to England & was in hospital and out of action for nearly a year. His leg was never the same again as it ended up over an inch shorter than previously, which made him walk with a pronounced limp. He received a compensation payment for this injury. (*Arthur Borton survived and went on to win a V.C. as a Lt Col commanding 2nd/22nd Bn London Regiment in Palestine in 1917)
[RETURN TO FRANCE....with No.15 Squadron, RFC]
When Captain Wadham recovered from his leg injury he returned to duty in France with the newly formed No.15 Squadron flying BE2c aircraft in the spotting & reconnaissance protection role. Capt Wadham became a Flight Commander with 15 Squadron on 25th May 1915 and flew many recce sorties throughout the summer, autumn and winter months of 1915.
[THE FINAL SORTIE]
At 07:30 on 17th January 1916, Captain Wadham took off in BE2c No. 2105 with a small group of photographically equipped aircraft on a reconnaissance protection flight with Sgt Nigel Vincent Piper as his observer.
Their aircraft was attacked and brought down near Passchendaele, almost certainly by Oblt Gustav Leffers (and not by Warrant Officer Krause and Leutnant von Lersner as is often claimed.)
Vivian Wadham was killed instantly in flight at Passchendaele, Westroosebeke while at the controls of the BE2c when a bullet struck him in the neck.
Here is a picture of his named coffin which was supplied by the Germans and is shown resting in a local Belgian Church. Captain Wadham now lies in eternal honour at the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery.
We visited his grave to offer our respects some years ago.
Sergeant Piper who was acting as gunner & observer in the front cockpit, and was himself an experienced pilot by 1916. He quickly and quite brilliantly resumed partial control of the aircraft. With Wadham no longer in control, the machine had gone into a spiral decent, but by climbing over the central bulkhead into the rear pilot’s cockpit and sitting on the dead Wadham’s lap, Nigel Piper managed to bring the machine down.
Sgt Nigel V. Piper (The man who landed the BE2c)Upon realising that he was still behind enemy lines Sgt Piper had the great presence of mind in the last few moments of the flight to purposefully roll the aircraft onto its back to ensure it was much damaged and not fit for further use.
The Germans removed Vivian Wadham’s body from the inverted rear cockpit and captured Nigel Piper who was promptly made a prisoner of war, but not before being pictured standing close to the aircraft, with his back toward the camera, but well apart from the German officers.
It is highly unusual that there are at least ten known & differently angled German photographs of the crashed and inverted BE2c (2105). We include eight of them here. The photographs were all clearly taken soon after the crash on the early morning of 17th January 1916.
We know of no other crashed RFC machine that is the subject of so many pictures.
The sudden arrival the British aircraft in German held territory clearly caused a lot of excitement in the enemy camp. Several of the pictures show many higher ranking German officers inspecting the wrecked machine with large numbers of other ranks looking on from a distance. The first pair of pictures were clearly taken not long after the crash as there are a large number of men in inquisitive attendance at the site. Also, the metal barrel which was later placed under the upturned engine to collect the useful residual oil drippings had not arrived when the first pictures were taken.
(THE NIGEL PIPER COMMEMORATIVE ASHTRAY)
Pictured here is a brass ashtray which we believe was made by Nigel Vincent Piper while a Prisoner of War in Germany. He died in 1994 shortly after his 100th birthday. He lived in Tring, Hertfordshire and was apparently a very modest man with a very sharp mind right up until the time of his death. He had said that Captain Wadham was already deceased at the moment the aircraft impacted the ground..
[SUMMARY]
Over the many years that we have researched the life and service career of this fine airman we feel that we have come to know him well. His unique career spans the dawn of aviation and truly stands out as one of the most remarkable in the early history of aviation and military flying.
We often wonder, had Viv Wadham survived the Great War, just what other remarkable feats, events and developments would this man’s exceptional life have encompassed.
Sadly, we will never know.
“PER ARDVA AD ASTRA”
FROM OUR OWN COLLECTION, LISTED FOR RESEARCH & GENERAL INTEREST.
349. Sgt F.C Whenman, who’s RFC & RAF medals ,
1914 Star & Bar Trio, LSGC & MSM, Defence & War Medals
are also listed here.
[THE STORY OF A WORLD CHANGING & PIVOTAL AVIATOR]
“2nd Lt - Captain, V.H.N. Wadham”.
1st Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment & Royal Flying Corps.
Perhaps only once in a lifetime does one see a medal group awarded to a man who was not only “first” or “among the first” in so many areas of civil & military aviation, but who was, just by random chance, also fated to be the person who without any doubt changed the course of world history and was perhaps the most pivotally important officer of The Great War.
“The Right Peg, of The Right Shape, in The Right Hole, on The Right Day”
Here is his simple but totally priceless medal group....and below the medals we tell his incredible story.
[THE MEDALS]
All are still on their original ribbons probably fitted in the 1920’s by Captain Wadham’s father.
1914 Star & Bar
2. LIEUT: V.H.N. WADHAM. HAMPS:R. ATTD: R.F.C.
A superb & undisturbed medal with much original red mint colour. The star has the incredibly rare “attached RFC” nomenclature which is only seen on the tiny handful of medals issued to the very first pre-commissioned members of the Army who then went on to form the fledgling Royal Flying Corps in 1912.
Complete with its original August-November clasp.
War Medal
CAPT. V.H.N. WADHAM.
(Totally original & uncleaned with an even ebony black time developed patina) With it’s original Oak Leaf M.I.D. emblem.
(London Gazette, 17th February 1915)
Victory Medal
CAPT. V.H.N. WADHAM.
The Very Rare *1st Issue “Bronze Finish” type with the separate “braised in” barrel suspension) *This early variety was only issued to a very few officers and due to its negative reception this dull looking issue, which Winston Churchill described as, “looking like something not fit to go into a Christmas Cracker” was quickly replaced by the common “brass gilt” type with integral suspension.
[THE COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE & SCROLL]
The original commemorative plaque & scroll have so far not shown up.
( DO YOU HAVE THEM IN YOUR COLLECTION ? IF SO, PLEASE CALL US TODAY ! )
We have therefore produced a temporary plaque & scroll to commemorate the sacrifice of Captain Wadham.
This special plaque has an inlaid sterling silver panel in the name aperture which reads:
“CAPTAIN VIVIAN H.N. WADHAM. ROYAL FLYING CORPS”
The .925 Sterling silver panel was inserted by a specialist engineering company and is made from a 1916 silver halfcrown of George V.
The scroll is a hand lettered facsimile executed to original standard by our graphologist.
[BIOGRAPHY] 1891-1916
Vivian Hugh Nicholas Wadham was the son of Hugh Davison Wadham, a wealthy London Stockbroker and his wife Mabel Emily Wadham, of Thamesfield, Shepperton, Middlesex. Vivian Wadham was born in Teddington on New Year)s Eve, 31st December 1891. He was educated at Malvern College, where he became a member of the Officer Training Corps. Following this he gained his commission in the 1st Hampshire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant on 18th September 1911.
[1912 & TRAINING WITH TOMMY SOPWITH AT BROOKLANDS]
At the dawn of regulated civil aviation and after several months of training by Fred Raynham & Tommy Sopwith at Brooklands and following an examination on a Farman Biplane he gained his Royal Aero Club Flying Licence No.243 on 16th July 1912.
He was also the man who while training at Brooklands in early 1912 had introduced the young Australian engineer Harry Hawker to Tommy Sopwith and his chief engineer Fred Sigrist. These were introductions that changed the course of British & world aviation.
Tommy Sopwith had only opened his Brooklands flying school on 1st February 1912 with the offer of flying training to licence standard for the then very considerable sum of £75.
Vivian Wadham was one of the first pupils to join the school.
The Royal Flying Corps was formed ten weeks later on 13th April 1912, which was just two days before The Titanic hit the iceberg and sank on 15th April.
A FACSIMILE OF VIVIAN WADHAM’s FLYING LICENCE. (Do You Have His Original ?) Thus, Viv’ Wadham was one of the very first civilian trained & newly licensed pilots to join the fledgling RFC and on 5th December 1912 he became one of the world’s very first military aviators, when he was attached to the RFC as a flying officer.
He is seen here (standing, 2nd from left) in 1912 at Eastchurch with some of the original members of the RFC & RNAS which include Charles Sampson & Geoffrey De Havilland.
During these early days of the RFC he regularly took his aero engineers on impromptu “familiarisation” flights in his normal Bleriot XI-2. His most famous passenger, while serving as a basic airman was non other than the young James Byford McCudden, who later won a Victoria Cross and became the leading British fighter ace of WW1.
Wadham clearly encouraged McCudden in his aim to become a pilot and he makes several mentions of his early flights with Viv Wadham in his famous book, “Flying Fury, Five Years in the RFC”.
[TO WAR, 13th AUGUST 1914]
As well being one of the very first founding members of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912, Vivian Wadham was also among the first few pilots to fly from Salisbury Plain, via Swingate Down, above Dover to Amiens, France with 3 Squadron RFC in a Bleriot XI-2 Monoplane.
This historic arrival was on 13th August 1914, just 9 days after the declaration of World War I.
He was accompanied on this historic flight by his engineer, 349 Sergeant F.C. Whenman, who later earned an LSGC & Meritorious Service Medal in the RAF. Whenman went on to serve as a Squadron Leader in the RAF during WW2. Miraculously, we now also have all Sgt Whenman’s medals which have recently been reunited with those of his pilot, Captain Wadham.
[THE CRITICAL & WORLD CHANGING OBSERVATION]
Just nine days later and at the very dawn of the Great War on the morning of 22nd August 1914, 2nd Lt V.H.N. WADHAM, flew a world changing observation sortie in a Bleriot XI-2 with Captain Lionel E.O. Charlton that without any doubt whatsoever immediately changed the course of world history when they saw that German General Alexander von Kluck was fast preparing his army to surround the BEF, cutting it off from its essential north western supply routes to the sea.
This was an observation that directly contradicted all of the other current intelligence which said that the bulk of German forces were positioned to the east of Brussels.
The British High Command under Field Marshall Sir John French listened to the Wadham & Charlton report and immediately, that same day, started the now famous retreat at Mons.
This withdrawal of troops initially destroyed morale but saved the lives of over 100,000 soldiers of the B.E.F. and directly prevented the British Army from being surrounded and losing access to its lines of supply from the coast.
Wadham and Charlton's work on 22nd August 1914 totally prevented the immediate and complete annihilation of the British Army during the first weeks of the war and the subsequent and inevitable loss of the war to Germany.
The two men had landed in a field in a small village called Grammont where the mayor and some villagers had run out to greet them and to see the then rare sight of an aeroplane. Asked if they had seen any German troops, the mayor confirmed that there were large numbers of cavalry in the woodland area which was a 15 minute walk down the road. Unknowingly, Wadham & Charlton had landed right in the middle of the German army ! They immediately restarted the aircraft engine and took off over the woodland in an attempt to fully assess the situation. From 500 feet, they immediately saw a huge number of enemy troops who were eating lunch in the woodland, who immediately began firing at the aircraft. Charlton returned the fire from his rifle and dropped a number of mills grenades from the aircraft onto the troops below.
And, so it was, also from this aircraft, on this day, that the very first aerial gun shots were fired & the very first explosives dropped onto an enemy force from an aeroplane in any war anywhere.
Their return flight back to their base via Ath and Mons was punctuated by several more bursts of enemy ground rifle fire which visibly damaged the spars & fabric of the aircraft while in flight. Upon approaching the British lines at Mons from a northerly direction, further shots were fired at the aircraft by our own troops. Upon landing at base it became apparent that there were over 40 bullet holes in the aircraft, one of which had narrowly avoided killing Charlton when it had lodged in his seat belt! Charlton hurried away to deliver the critical report while Wadham inspected the damaged Bleriot.
They were both VERY lucky to survive.
This sortie is thus celebrated as the most pivotally important reconnaissance flight in aviation history.
For this sortie, 2nd Lt Vivian Wadham received a Mention in Despatches by the C-in-C Sir John French.
The late Captain Vivian Hugh Nicholas Wadham therefore stands as one of the historically most important and pivotal figures of all time in the world of military aviation.
[No. 3 SQUADRON’s FIRST KILL. 5th February 1915]
On 5th February 1915, whilst flying a Morane Type L “Parasol” (1848) with 3 Squadron, Capt Wadham and his observer Lt Arthur Drummond “Bosky” Borton were credited with No.3 Squadron’s first ever kill, which in turn was one of the RFC’s very earliest combat successes when they forced down a Lille based German Aviatik. The enemy aeroplane forced landed behind British lines at Merville.
Lt Borton, armed with only a LeEnfield .303 rifle fired off a sustained volley at the enemy aircraft from ultra close range with the conclusive shots being fired at a distance of just 50 Feet ! When their Commanding Officer Major Salmond reported the victory to GHQ the two airmen were congratulated by The Commander in Chief.
[A SERIOUS EARLY ACCIDENT] 27th February 1915.
On 27th February, while again flying in Morane L (1848), Wadham and Borton were involved in a serious accident. The crash happened while 3 Squadron was flying out of the advanced landing field at Serches from their aerodrome at Fère-en-Tardenois. 3 Squadron moved there from Amiens on 5th October. Wadham broke his thigh and Borton broke his neck in three places when their aircraft stalled at low level on take off and hit the ground. James McCudden witnessed the incident and was one of the airmen who rushed to the crash site to extricate the two badly injured men from the wreckage.
Viv Wadham was shipped back to England & was in hospital and out of action for nearly a year. His leg was never the same again as it ended up over an inch shorter than previously, which made him walk with a pronounced limp. He received a compensation payment for this injury. (*Arthur Borton survived and went on to win a V.C. as a Lt Col commanding 2nd/22nd Bn London Regiment in Palestine in 1917)
[RETURN TO FRANCE....with No.15 Squadron, RFC]
When Captain Wadham recovered from his leg injury he returned to duty in France with the newly formed No.15 Squadron flying BE2c aircraft in the spotting & reconnaissance protection role. Capt Wadham became a Flight Commander with 15 Squadron on 25th May 1915 and flew many recce sorties throughout the summer, autumn and winter months of 1915.
[THE FINAL SORTIE]
At 07:30 on 17th January 1916, Captain Wadham took off in BE2c No. 2105 with a small group of photographically equipped aircraft on a reconnaissance protection flight with Sgt Nigel Vincent Piper as his observer.
Their aircraft was attacked and brought down near Passchendaele, almost certainly by Oblt Gustav Leffers (and not by Warrant Officer Krause and Leutnant von Lersner as is often claimed.)
Vivian Wadham was killed instantly in flight at Passchendaele, Westroosebeke while at the controls of the BE2c when a bullet struck him in the neck.
Here is a picture of his named coffin which was supplied by the Germans and is shown resting in a local Belgian Church. Captain Wadham now lies in eternal honour at the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery.
We visited his grave to offer our respects some years ago.
Sergeant Piper who was acting as gunner & observer in the front cockpit, and was himself an experienced pilot by 1916. He quickly and quite brilliantly resumed partial control of the aircraft. With Wadham no longer in control, the machine had gone into a spiral decent, but by climbing over the central bulkhead into the rear pilot’s cockpit and sitting on the dead Wadham’s lap, Nigel Piper managed to bring the machine down.
Sgt Nigel V. Piper (The man who landed the BE2c)Upon realising that he was still behind enemy lines Sgt Piper had the great presence of mind in the last few moments of the flight to purposefully roll the aircraft onto its back to ensure it was much damaged and not fit for further use.
The Germans removed Vivian Wadham’s body from the inverted rear cockpit and captured Nigel Piper who was promptly made a prisoner of war, but not before being pictured standing close to the aircraft, with his back toward the camera, but well apart from the German officers.
It is highly unusual that there are at least ten known & differently angled German photographs of the crashed and inverted BE2c (2105). We include eight of them here. The photographs were all clearly taken soon after the crash on the early morning of 17th January 1916.
We know of no other crashed RFC machine that is the subject of so many pictures.
The sudden arrival the British aircraft in German held territory clearly caused a lot of excitement in the enemy camp. Several of the pictures show many higher ranking German officers inspecting the wrecked machine with large numbers of other ranks looking on from a distance. The first pair of pictures were clearly taken not long after the crash as there are a large number of men in inquisitive attendance at the site. Also, the metal barrel which was later placed under the upturned engine to collect the useful residual oil drippings had not arrived when the first pictures were taken.
(THE NIGEL PIPER COMMEMORATIVE ASHTRAY)
Pictured here is a brass ashtray which we believe was made by Nigel Vincent Piper while a Prisoner of War in Germany. He died in 1994 shortly after his 100th birthday. He lived in Tring, Hertfordshire and was apparently a very modest man with a very sharp mind right up until the time of his death. He had said that Captain Wadham was already deceased at the moment the aircraft impacted the ground..
[SUMMARY]
Over the many years that we have researched the life and service career of this fine airman we feel that we have come to know him well. His unique career spans the dawn of aviation and truly stands out as one of the most remarkable in the early history of aviation and military flying.
We often wonder, had Viv Wadham survived the Great War, just what other remarkable feats, events and developments would this man’s exceptional life have encompassed.
Sadly, we will never know.
“PER ARDVA AD ASTRA”
FROM OUR OWN COLLECTION, LISTED FOR RESEARCH & GENERAL INTEREST.