Feats of part-Maori air ace recalled

Press, 7 March 1987, Page 22

Feats of part-Maori air ace recalled

From

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

Few New Zealanders may know it, but the first Victoria Cross in history to be awarded to an airman was won by a partMaori. William Rhodes Moorhouse, grandson of a successful pioneer landowner, businessman, and politician, whose first wife was a Maori, was awarded a posthumous V.C. in May, 1915, for his actions in bombing a railway line west of Courtrai, France, in an attempt to halt a German advance. Instead of carrying an ob? server in his Royal Flying Corps BE2 two-seater aircraft, Moorhouse, aged 28, had a 1001 b bomb slung below the fuselage. He was struck by machine-gun fire as he made his bomb pass and was badly wounded. Moorhouse dropped his bomb and blew up the railway line. Despite his injuries, he elected not to land on enemy territory and was hit twice more as he flew back to his squadron’s airfield. His aeroplane had 95 holes from bullets and shrapnel. He insisted on making his report before receiving medical attention but died the next day, April 27, 1915. He was later buried in the grounds of his' family’s home in Dorset

Now, almost 72 years later, the first portrait of Moorhouse has been painted and will be on its way later this month to New Zealand to feature at the opening of the new R.N.Z.A.F. museum at Wigram on April 1, and then go on permanent display. The painting, by the noted British artist Wing Commander (retired) Stan Baldock, was handed over to Brigadier Ray Andrews, head of the New Zealand defence liaison staff in London this week. It was commissioned by Brigadier Andrews’ predecessor in London, Air Vice Marshall Pat Neville.

A smaller copy of the 75cm by 100 cm portrait is being given by members of the R.A.F.’s 2 squadron to the Royal Air Force museum at Hendon.

Baldock is a well-known painter of aircraft and land and seascapes as well as portraits. He trained in London in the 19305, then joined the R.A.F. in 1939, being awarded the D.F.M. in 1943, and retiring in 1976.

His painting of the Concorde, commissioned by British Aerospace, was chosen by British Airways to reproduce prints. Baldock’s paintings of Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, Marshall of the R.A.F, and Marshall Sir John Curtiss, Air Commander of the R.A.F. during the Falklands campaign, now hang in the R.A.F. museum.

His portrait of William Moorhouse took almost four months to complete. It shows the uniformed R.F.C. officer standing, with a BE2 aeroplane and battle scenes in the background. “I had only an old black and white photo of Moorhouse to follow,” he told Brigadier Andrews. “I assumed that as he had Maori blood he would be dark, with brown eyes, but fortunately I discovered before it was too late that he had light complexion, sandy brown hair, and bright green eyes.” Woodhouse’s maternal grandfather, Willian Rhodes, was one of 14 children of a Yorkshire

tenant farmer. He first visited New Zealand in 1836, then settled in the Wellington area in 1839, becoming with three of his brothers part-owner of vast properties. Later, he played a major part in the founding of the New Zealand Shipping Company, the Bank of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Insurance Company, and was a member of the House of Representatives for Wellington City and of the Legislative Council. Rhodes’s daughter by his Maori wife, later adopted by his second wife, eventually inherited his £750,000 estate. She went to live in England and married a relation of her adopted mother, giving birth to William, the eventual air ace, in 1887. William was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and devoted himself to fast cars and then planes from an early age. He won races at flying meetings in Britain and America, and in 1911 became the first man to fly through the archways of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge. The next year, while on his honeymoon, he became the first pilot to fly the English Channel carrying two passengers — his wife and a newspaper reporter. Moorhouse joined the Royal Fly-

ing Corps at the outbreak of the First World War. Twenty-five years later, Moor-

house’s son, also William Moorhouse, was a fighter pilot with the R.A.F. in the Battle of

Britain. He won the D.F.C. before his Hawker Hurricane crashed in Kent after a dogfight His body

was cremated and his ashes were buried beside his father’s grave in Dorset.