2nd LIEUTENANT CECIL MUSCROFT COLEMAN, ROYAL AIR FORCE. KILLED IN ACTION, 6th SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 18.

2^nd LIEUTENANT CECIL MUSCROFT COLEMAN, ROYAL AIR FORCE. KILLED IN ACTION, 6^th SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 18.

On the morning of the 6^th September 1918 12 planes of No 11 Squadron Royal Air Force took off from an airfield near to the village of Proyart in the Somme Valley and flew north-east towards Cambrai about 25 miles away. Flying Bristol B.F.2b’s, they were on a reconnaissance patrol over the German lines to gather intelligence ahead of a forthcoming British attack. At about 10.30am as the patrol, flying at 17000ft began the journey back to their base they were attacked by about 30 German Fokker DV 2ii biplanes. The German single seat machines were of the latest design and were superior to the Bristol Fighters which had two seats for a pilot and observer.  One of the British planes was being flown by Lieutenant Ewart Underwood with 2^nd Lieutenant Cecil Muscroft Coleman as his observer and air gunner. In the ensuing ‘dog fight’ which was swift and brutal planes from both sides were shot down and as the remnants of 11 Squadron returned home the plane flown by Lt Underwood was missing.

It is not clear if Underwood and Coleman’s plane had been shot down or had developed a problem and had crashed, although, one pilot did recalled seeing a Bristol Fighter during the ‘dog fight’ diving steeply chased by two German fighters. Both pilots were reported missing and it was some time before their bodies were recovered and it seems more than possible that they were shot down and crashed in No Man’s Land.

Cecil Coleman was born on 21^st November 1899 in Hemsworth near Pontefract to medical practitioner Gerald Coleman and his wife Mary Alice. It seems that the death of her husband brought Mary and her five children to Ilkley where they lived at Netherton Villa on Parish Ghyll Road and later at Brookroyd on Easby Drive. Cecil was sent as a boarder to St Bees School, a private school on the Cumbrian coast which attended until the age of 17.

On the 25^th September 1917 he enlisted into the army and was sent to a training battalion, however, within a few weeks was accepted into the Royal Flying Corps, soon to be renamed Royal Air Force. His training must have proceeded smoothly for on 14^th June 1918 he arrived in France to join 11 Squadron where he remained until his death.

Today 2^nd Lieutenant Cecil Coleman lies in the British Military Cemetery at Dury Mill alongside his comrade Lieutenant Ewart Underwood and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley and at St Margaret’s Church.