- Type of Memorial
- Board / Plaque / Tablet
- WMR Reference Number
- 44728
- Description
- Rectangular Brass Plaque with engraved regimental badge above the text and an A4 card each side with background information and photograph.
- Inscription
- Plaque-IN LOVING MEMORY/ OF/ CAPTAIN J AIDAN LIDDELL, V.C., M.C.,/ 3RD BATTALION PRINCESS LOUISE'S/ ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS/ MORTALLY WOUNDED NEAR OSTEND, BELGIUM/ WITH THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS, BRINGING/ BACK HIS OBSERVER TO SAFETY BEHIND/ OUR LINES AUGUST 1915/ "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS,/ THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR A FRIEND"/ ST. JOHN XV.13.
Information Board-Captain JOHN AIDAN LIDDELL, the St. Omer VC
“With a Smile and a Wave” – The Life of Captain J/ Aidan Liddell VC.
John Aidan Liddell won his VC in the summer of 1915, while on a long range reconnaissance mission, flying out of St. Omer in Northern France.
Aidan Liddell was born 3rd August 1888 in Benwell, Northumberland, the son of a wealthy land and colliery owner. The eldest of six children, he was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire and Balliol College, Oxford where he read Zoology.
In 1912 Aidan joined the 3rd Reserve Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Aviation also became an abiding passion and he obtained his Royal Aero Club Ticket (No. 781) in the spring of 1914. flying the Boxkite with the Vickers School at Brooklands, Surrey.
On 30th August 1914, on the outbreak of war, he accompanied the 2nd Bn. to the front in France with the rank of captain and was placed in command of the machine gun section of the battalion. He was for forty-three consecutive days in the trenches. For his service as commander of the machine gun section he was mentioned in dispatches, and received the award of the Military Cross on 14th January 1915. He was himself wounded and invalided home.
However, after his recovery, he joined the Royal Flying Corps in May 1915 and returned to the front again on July 23rd. On 31st July, whilst on a flying reconnaissance over the Ostend-Bruges-Ghent area in enemy occupied Belgium, Captain Liddell’s …? (RES/KES?) was raked by enemy machine gun fire and was seriously wounded, including a shattered right thigh. This caused momentary unconsciousness, but by great effort he recovered partial control of his machine when it had dropped nearly 3,000ft. in an inverted dive and succeeded, although fired on?, in re-plotting? The course and, after half an hour, brought the plane back
…….? and throttle control were smashed, as was part of the ……? and cockpit, but the machine and life of the observer were saved. For (t)his action, Captain Liddell was awarded a Victoria Cross. The ….. ? which he so greatly distinguished himself by his supreme ………? To receive Britain’s highest gallantry award as, after having his leg amputated and septic poisoning setting in, he died of his wounds a month later at De Panne, Flanders, Belgium, on 31st August 1915, aged 27.