LATE CAPTAIN MAPPLEBECK

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 86, 9 October 1915, Page 10

LATE CAPTAIN MAPPLEBECK

AIRMAN 1 HERO'S SAD DEATH. SHORT, BUT EXCITING LIFE. (PROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, Ist September. The ranks of the British, flying men are the .poorer by the sad death of Cat>t. Gilbert William Roger Mapplebeck, D.5.0., which occurred in France as the result of injuries sustained in an accident while trying a new French monoplane. Only twenty-three years of age, he was the -first of our flying men to fight the enemy in Flanders, and was beloved by his comrades for his many excellent physical qualities and perfect chivalry. On 13th August of last year the young Liverpool airman flew to France on war service, and almost from that day he rendered most valuable services to headquarters. He was the \ first British airman to carry out a reconnaissance over the enemy's lines, and later he was the first airman to drop bombs from an aeroplane. AU through the dreadful retreat from Mons he flew over the .harassing hordes of the Germans, and to his stubborn friends below carried the message of the foe's movements. On 29th September he was shot in a duel with German aeroplanes, while 6000 feet in the air, yet he managed to reach the British lines, though he wa6 unconscious when he landed, and his machine was spattered with, his blood. "For three long months he lingered in hospital, Sir John French being one of his most frequent visitors, and one story which airmen tell of that time is typical," writes a correspondent. " His dearest friend came out to nuree him, and wore on her breast, stamped out in brass, the outspread wings which mark the badge of the air service — ' the service till death,' as some mothers call it. Men in the wards told hei that she should not wear this badge, but Capt. Mapplebeck epoke quickly ... I want you always to wear wings.' And that dearest friend has a message from Windsor Castle which says :—: — "Windsor' Castle, 26th Aug., 1915. " Dear Madam, — I am commanded by the King to convey to you the assurance of His Majesty's true sympathy witn you in the cruel loss which you have sustained by the death of your son through an accident when flying a new machine. Mis Majesty knows what ga4-]a-nt and distinguished services he had rendered during the war, and deeply regrets that a, young life of such promise should have thus been cut short. Yours very truly,— Stamfordham." ADVENTURES IN BELGIUM. While in hospital, Capt. Mapplebeck was awarded the D.5.0., and directly he was convalescent he returned to his duties. During the night of 11th. March he and two other airmen shot out into the dark for a raid on the German lines near Lille. This was the first aeroplane raid attempted in the darkness of night, and those who watched them go wondered if they would ever com.© back. All suffered from a tremendous German cannonade. One of the intrepid three fell, wounded, among the enemy, and died in Gef many. Another, came down in the British lines, while Capv. Mapplebeck's machine was shot down just ouoside Lille itself. The intrepid captain set fire to his machine, and destroyed it, and lay for three days in a wood, living only on. the chocolate which he had carried with him. Then he found shelter for. a day in an empty house. Ab he spoke good French, he made friends with, the peasants, and by their aid he steered a course for Holland, for to get to our own lines in France was^ quite impossible. Most of the way he was in the very midst of German soldiery, only loitering at Lille to tear down a proclamation which the German commandant had posted respecting himself and a comrade. Capt. Mapplebeok was luck enough to get through into Dutch, territory, and reached Lftndon on 4th April. Shortly afterwards he returned to France, the youngest acting flight-commander on record. His remains have been laid in Streatham Cemetery.