INTREPID AIRMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20539, 14 February 1935, Page 5

INTREPID AIRMEN.

Last of Famous Family Dead. BROTHER OF V.C. The death after an operation in a London hospital of Maurice V. M’Cudden rerhoves the last of a famous family of intrepid airmen, and leaves one of the most tragic mothers of the war mourning the loss of her four sons, says the “ Daily Mail.” M’Cudden was the brother of Major J. B. M’Cudden, V.C., who shot down fifty-seven German aeroplanes, and was then killed in a simple accident when his machine side-slipped on the ground. His other two brothers. Lieut. Jack M’Cudden and Sergeant W. M’Cudden, were also war-time pilots, and there was one period when all three of these light-hearted Irishmen were dtf.ig battle for their country in the air at the same time. Major M’Cudden, besides winning the V.C., gained the D.S.O. and the M.C. Lieut. M’Cudden also won the D. 5.0., and Sergeant M’Cudden gained a reputation as a fearless air fighter. All three were killed at the front. Then their father, Mr William Henry M’Cudden, an ex-soldier, accidentally fell from a railway train and was killed, leaving Maurice as the last of the male line. He too followed the M'Cudden tradition of taking risks as a matter of routine. He was employed on dangerous experiments by the Air Ministry at Farnborough. He won many prizes in motor-cycle races at Brooklands. Few riders were more daring or skilful, and he broke, numerous records.

He had been in hospital since last year, when he was admitted with a serious internal complaint, made acute by the strain of motor-cycle racing, and began a desperate fight for his life.