Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Henry Meintjes, (25 December 1892 – 2 June 1949) was a South African World War I

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

credited with eight aerial victories. He attended St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown, and at the outbreak of World War I he joined the 14th Dismounted Rifles before going to England in 1915 and joining the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

. After flight training he was posted to No. 60 Squadron RFC as one of the initial batch of flying officers. He deployed to France, flying the Morane-Saulnier Bullet and the

Nieuport Scout The Nieuport 17 C.1 (or Nieuport XVII C.1 in contemporary sources) is a French sesquiplane fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little larger than earlier Ni ...

, in which he scored four kills. By December 1916, he was made Flight Commander, with the rank of Temporary Captain. Meintjes was described as "...one of the best pilots, and almost the most popular officer, 60 ever had". On 22 February 1917, he was posted to the No. 1 School of Aerial Gunnery and the following month to No. 56 Squadron RFC. He scored another four kills with 56 Squadron. He participated in

Albert Ball Albert Ball, (14 August 1896 – 7 May 1917) was a British fighter pilot during the First World War. At the time of his death he was the United Kingdom's leading flying ace, with 44 victories, and remained its fourth-highest scorer b ...

's final dogfight, during which he was wounded in the wrist. He received the Military Cross in June 1917. Thomas Marson remembers Meintjes as follows:

A fine pilot, you cannot keep him out of the air, he came to us from No. 60 Squadron, and was a tower of strength. Nothing escaped him, and nothing worried him. Although hit in the wrist a long way over the lines, and despite the loss of much blood – the cockpit was like a shambles – he brought the machine back and made a perfect landing on our side of the lines ear Sains-en-Gohelle and then fainted away. Trust Meintjes not to faint till his job was done.

After a long stay in hospital, he was posted to Central Flying School on 25 July 1918 as an instructor, receiving the Air Force Cross for his work there. On 2 May 1919 he was appointed Officer in Charge at No. 1 Southern Aeroplane Repair Depot, at the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

, Farnborough, and was transferred to the RAF unemployed list on 14 June 1919. He returned to South Africa and became Chief Pilot for

Handley Page Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation a ...

South African Transports, Ltd until 1921. He joined the

South African Air Force The South African Air Force (SAAF) is the air warfare branch of South African National Defence Force, with its headquarters in Pretoria. The South African Air Force was established on 1 February 1920. The Air Force saw service in World War II a ...

in 1922. In 1931 he joined the

South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meintjes, Henry 1892 births Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent South African World War I flying aces Recipients of the Military Cross Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) 1949 deaths Alumni of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown