John George Will

Last updated

John George Will
Birth nameJohn George Will
Date of birth(1892-09-22)22 September 1892
Place of birth Merton, Surrey, England
Date of death25 March 1917(1917-03-25) (aged 24)
Place of death Hauts-de-France, France
School Merchant Taylors'
University Downing College, Cambridge
Rugby union career
Amateur team(s)
YearsTeamApps(Points)
Cambridge University RUFC ()
International career
YearsTeamApps(Points)
1912-14 Scotland 7

John George Will (22 September 1892 – 25 March 1917), nicknamed the "Flying Scot," was a Scottish rugby union player and a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps killed in World War I. [1] [2]

Contents

Will was born in Merton, Surrey, the son of Scottish physician John Kennedy Will (from Cullen, Moray) and Ella Ryng Will (from St Helens, Lancashire). [3] He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School (1905–11) and then Downing College, Cambridge, where he played for Cambridge University RFC. He had seven caps for Scotland in 1912–14, [1] and he was dubbed the "Flying Scot" for his playing style. Will had played in the last match before the war, the Calcutta Cup match at Inverleith against England, alongside James Huggan who died in 1914, and Frederick Harding Turner and Eric Templeton Young, who died in 1915. [2]

Will joined the Honourable Artillery Company when the war began in August 1914 and was sent to France the following month. The following April he was commissioned into the Worcestershire Hussars and then switched to the Leinster Regiment the next month. In August 1915, he was wounded in action near Hooge, Belgium. He joined the Royal Flying Corps that November and earned his pilot's certificate in England in June 1916. He remained in England as an instructor in Dover before returning to the front in February 1917 with the No. 29 Squadron. [2]

Death

Few official details are available concerning Will's death. According to Nigel McCrery, who wrote the book Into Touch: Rugby Internationals Killed in the Great War, on the morning of 25 March 1917, Will took off from Le Hameau in a Nieuport 17 A6751 in a five-plane escort mission, and he and Lieutenant Christopher Guy Gilbert (aka the Dorset Flyer) never made it back. They were apparently attacked by the Red Baron's Flying Circus. Gilbert was shot down by the Baron, while Will was shot by the baron's brother Lothar von Richthofen. [2]

Will's grave was found in December 1917, after the Allied forces made inroads into German-held territory. He was buried with a cross made from a broken propeller:

"Round the propeller-hub is painted '2nd Lt J G Will RFC'. He was the wing-three quarter known before the war as 'the flying Scot' ... the grave must have been made by Boche airmen – a curiously chivalrous act, for they can hardly have thought it likely that we would advance far enough to see it.

2nd Lt Huntley Gordon, personal correspondence [2]

Will's remains were not reburied. He is commemorated at the Arras Flying Services Memorial. [4]

Commemoration

On 25 March 2017 A commemoration ceremony was held in the Memorial Garden of Merchant Taylors' School. A 36-page booklet giving full biographical details was produced and is available here. Unique to the commemoration was that Will's nephew, Roger Hamer, was traced and was able to attend. He donated much memorabilia, including a fragment from Will's propeller, that is now stored at the School archives

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis McLaren</span> British Member of Parliament

Francis Walter Stafford McLaren was a British Member of Parliament killed in the First World War in a flying accident.

Walter Riddell Sutherland, also known as Wattie Suddie, was a Scotland international rugby union player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Abercrombie</span> Scottish naval officer, cricketer and rugby union footballer

Cecil Halliday Abercrombie was a Scottish international rugby union player, first-class cricketer, and an officer in the Royal Navy. Abercrombie passed out from the Britannia Royal Naval College into the Royal Navy in 1902, and shortly thereafter he served abord HMS Hyacinth in the British campaign in Somaliland, being part of the force that captured "Mullah" Hassan's stronghold in 1904. He would later served aboard HMS Defence at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, during which he was killed in action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lou Phillips</span> Rugby player

Louis Augustus Phillips was a Welsh rugby player, who played half-back for Newport RFC, and won four caps for Wales. He was also a talented amateur golfer.

David Dickie Howie was a rugby union player, who represented Scotland and Kirkcaldy RFC. He enlisted as a trooper in the local yeomanry in September 1914, at the start of the First World War. After undergoing training in England, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery in April 1915 and despatched to Gallipoli in August. During the evacuation of Anzac Bay, he contracted pneumonia, and died in Cairo, Egypt, after shooting himself with a revolver while in a state of delirium. He is buried at the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery.

Jimmy Ross was a Scotland international rugby union player.

Capt. Eric Templeton Young was a Scottish rugby union player and British Army officer who was killed in the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Skinner Wilson (rugby union)</span> Scotland international rugby union player

Lieutenant-Commander John Skinner Wilson was a Trinidad-born rugby player, who represented Scotland, United Services RFC and London Scottish FC. He enrolled in the Royal Navy in 1898. He was killed in World War I in the Battle of Jutland, serving as Lieutenant-Commander aboard HMS Indefatigable. He is remembered on panel 10 at the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Patrick Charles Bentley Blair was a Scottish rugby union player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Michael Dickson</span> Scotland international rugby union player

Walter Michael "Mike" Dickson was a rugby union player, who represented Scotland, Blackheath and Oxford. He was killed in World War I.

Maj. Walter Torrie Forrest was a Scottish rugby union player and British Army officer who was killed in World War I.

Maj. Roland Elphinstone Gordon was a Scottish rugby union player and British Army officer who was killed in World War I.

Lt. James Young Milne Henderson was a Scottish rugby union player and British Army officer who was killed in World War I.

Captain Lewis Robertson was a Scottish rugby union player. He played for London Scottish FC and was capped nine times for Scotland between 1908 and 1913. He also played for the Army from 1904 to 1914, and several other clubs.

Lt. Stephanus Sebastian Leonard Steyn was a Scottish-South African rugby union player and British Army officer who was killed in World War I.

Lt. Albert Luvian Wade was a Scottish rugby union player. He was killed in World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Middleton Wallace</span> Scotland international rugby union player

William "Willie" Middleton Wallace was a rugby union player. He played fullback for Cambridge University RFC and was capped for Scotland in 1913–14.

James Pearson was a Scotland international rugby union player. He played at Centre. At the First World War, Pearson joined the Royal Scots as a soldier; he was killed in Second Battle of Ypres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arras Flying Services Memorial</span> World War I memorial located in Pas-de-Calais, in France

The Arras Flying Services Memorial Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial in the Faubourg d'Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France. The memorial commemorates nearly 1,000 airmen from forces of the Commonwealth who were killed on the Western Front during World War I and who have no known grave. The memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens, sculpted by William Reid Dick and unveiled by Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on 31 July 1932.

References

  1. 1 2 Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany, p. 209. (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN   1-905326-24-6)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 McCrery, Nigel (2014). Into Touch: Rugby Internationals Killed in the Great War. Pen and Sword. pp. 192–193. ISBN   9781781590874.
  3. 1901 England Census
  4. "Casualty Details: Will, John George". Commonwealth War Graves Commission . Retrieved 23 June 2018.