John Inglis Gilmour - Flying Service

Flying Service

Gilmour joined the Royal Flying Corps in December 1915. He was originally assigned to 27 Squadron of the RFC. They were the sole squadron equipped with the Martinsyde G.100, commonly called the Elephant. This craft was nicknamed for being large and ungainly. A single seated aircraft, it turned out to be too big, slow, and unmaneuverable to be a successful fighter, and without a rear gunner, too defenseless to survive well in a ground attack or bombing role. It was equipped with a Lewis machine gun mounted on the upper wing firing over the propeller arc, and a second one on the fuselage pointed toward the rear.

Nevertheless, before the Elephants were withdrawn from service, Gilmour scored three victories flying one, though his primary duty was bombing. On 15 September 1916, in conjunction with several other pilots, he destroyed an Albatros D.I. On the 24th, he destroyed a Fokker Eindekker; on the 26th, he drove another down out of control.

On 26 May 1917, Lieutenant Gilmour received the Military Cross for his prowess as a bombing formation leader. At this point, he was almost certainly still flying the Martinsyde.

Late in 1917, Gilmour was assigned to No. 65 Squadron RAF as a flight commander. After a fourteen month gap in his aerial victory list, he scored flying a Sopwith Camel, on 18 December 1917. His two triumphs that day made him an ace.

He shot a triple on 4 January 1918, including one down in flames, and followed it up with number eight on 9 January.

He then began to run up his score by single and double victories—two in February, one in March, seven in April, eight in May, four in June. By 29 June, his total was 31.

On 1 July 1918, Gilmour capped his career with a performance that earned him a Distinguished Service Order. On that evening, in a 45 minute span, he burned two Fokker D.VIIs and knocked another down out of control, set an Albatros D.V afire, and drove a Pfalz D.III out of the air. The times on his combat reports make it clear these were five separate engagements; many times, aces reporting multiple victories scored in a single engagement.

Gilmour destroyed a Pfalz the next day, and two the day after, for his final successes. In the end, his victory record showed that he had 1 balloon destroyed, 1 enemy aircraft captured, 24 aircraft destroyed (and 3 shared destroyed) and 10 claimed 'out of control'. Eight of the destroyed craft had gone down in flames, as had the balloon.

He was promoted to major and transferred to Italy to command 28 Squadron. However, he did not add further victories to his record.

His victory list made him the leading ace of the 13 aces in 65 Squadron.

On 3 August 1918, Gilmour was awarded the DSO; on 16 September, he was gazetted for his second bar to his MC.

After the war, he had a brief tenure as air attaché in Rome in July, 1919. He then transferred to the Middle East to join a former Royal Naval Air Service unit, No. 216 Squadron RAF.

John Inglis Gilmour died on 24 February 1928, having committed suicide by cyanide poisoning. His death certificate describes him as of being of independent means but unsound mind.