John Inglis Gilmour, (28 June 1896 – 24 February 1928) was a British

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 ...

of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He was the highest scoring Scotsman in 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 ...

, with 39 victories. Gilmour began his military career in the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) is a light infantry company (military unit), company (designated as Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland) and was a line infantry regiment of the British Army tha ...

, but was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps. Gaining his wings on 17 March 1916, Gilmour was assigned to pilot the Martinsyde Elephant on the Western Front. He was one of the few successful scorers with the clumsy craft, downing three German opponents. He went on to establish a reputation as a crack bomber formation leader. In late 1917, he advanced to flying a

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

fighter as a

Flight Commander A flight commander is the leader of a constituent portion of an aerial squadron in aerial operations, often into combat. That constituent portion is known as a flight, and usually contains six or fewer aircraft, with three or four being a common ...

for No. 65 Squadron. Beginning on 18 December 1916, he reeled off a further 36 victories by 3 July 1918. That included five separate victories on 1 July 1918. He was then promoted to major and sent to command No. 28 Squadron in Italy. Post war, Gilmour was the air attache in Rome, then was posted to No. 216 Squadron in the

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Early life

Gilmour was born in

Helensburgh Helensburgh ( ; ) is a town on the north side of the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, situated at the mouth of the Gareloch. Historically in Dunbartonshire, it became part of Argyll and Bute following local government reorganisation in 1996. Histo ...

Dumbartonshire Dunbartonshire () or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders Perthshire to the north, Stirling ...

, Scotland, the son of John James Gilmour, a tobacco merchant, and Isabella Inglis. He was educated at the

Loretto School Loretto School, founded in 1827, is an independent school (UK), independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. History The school was founded by the Reverend Th ...

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

, Edinburgh, and represented the school in

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and

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. He was also a member of

Officers' Training Corps The University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), also known as the Officers' Training Corps (OTC), are British Army reserve units, under the command of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which recruit exclusively from universities and focus on ...

, with the rank of sergeant. In December 1914, aged 18, Gilmour left school and joined the

regiment with the rank of second lieutenant.

Military service

Gilmour transferred the

in December 1915, and was awarded the Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 2888 after soloing in a Maurice Farman biplane at the military flying school at Farnborough on 17 March 1916. He was assigned to No. 27 Squadron. They were the sole squadron equipped with the Martinsyde G.100, commonly called the Elephant. This aircraft was nicknamed for being large and ungainly. A single seater, it was too big, slow, and manoeuvrable to be a successful fighter, and without a rear gunner, too defenceless 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, 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 The Albatros D.I was an early fighter aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Albatros Flugzeugwerke. It was the first of the Albatros D types which equipped the majority of the German and Austrian fighter squadrons ( ...

. On the 24th, he destroyed a

Fokker Eindekker The Fokker ''Eindecker'' fighters were a series of German World War I monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft designed by Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker.Boyne 1988 Developed in April 1915, the first ''Eindecker'' ("Monoplane") was the first purpose ...

; on the 26th, he drove another down out of control. On 26 May 1917, Gilmour received the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

(MC) 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 No. 65 Squadron was a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force, which formed in 1916. the squadron saw action in both the First and the Second World Wars, before being reformed as a Bloodhound unit in the 1960s. The squadron then became an Oper ...

as a

flight commander A flight commander is the leader of a constituent portion of an aerial squadron in aerial operations, often into combat. That constituent portion is known as a flight, and usually contains six or fewer aircraft, with three or four being a common ...

.Franks, p. 61. After a fourteen-month gap in his aerial victory list, he scored flying a

, 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 The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

(DSO). On that evening, within 45 minutes, he burned two

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII is a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the '' Fokker-Flugzeugwerke''. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII ...

s and knocked another down out of control, set an

Albatros D.V The Albatros D.V is a fighter aircraft of the German aircraft manufacturer ''Albatros Flugzeugwerke''. It was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatros fighter to see operational service with the (Imperial German A ...

afire, and drove a

Pfalz D.III The Pfalz D.III was a fighter aircraft used by the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' (Imperial German Air Service) during the First World War. The D.III was the first major original design from Pfalz Flugzeugwerke. Though generally considered inferior to co ...

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.Shores, et al., pp. 168–169. He was promoted to major and transferred to Italy to command No. 28 Squadron, but added no 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

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to his MC.

Postwar career

After the war, he had a brief tenure as

air attaché An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

in Rome in July 1919. He then transferred to the Middle East to join

No. 216 Squadron RAF Number 216 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, since reforming on 1 April 2020 and is tasked with testing future Swarm robotics, drone swarm technology. It had previously operated Lockheed TriStar ...

. John Gilmour died in

St James's Street St James's Street is the principal street in the district of St James's, central London. It runs from Piccadilly downhill to St James's Palace and Pall Mall. The main gatehouse of the Palace is at the southern end of the road; in the 17th centu ...

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, in February 1928. A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was returned at an inquest. Gilmour's medals were auctioned on 13 September 2012, and sold for £40,000.

Awards and honours

;Military Cross :Second Lieutenant (Temporary Lieutenant) John Gilmour, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and RFC. ::For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in carrying out long-distance bomb raids. On one occasion, although his engine began to fail, he continued to lead his formation, and succeeded in bringing back most valuable information. ;1st Bar to Military Cross :Lieutenant (Temporary Captain) John Gilmour, MC, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and RAF. ::For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when engaging hostile aircraft. Within a week he crashed to the ground four enemy machines, and at all times, when on patrol, he never hesitated to attack any enemy in sight. His consistent dash and great fearlessness have been worthy of the highest praise. In all he has ten hostile machines to his credit. ;Distinguished Service Order :Lieutenant (Temporary Captain) John Gilmour, MC (formerly Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders). ::He is a most inspiriting patrol leader who has destroyed twenty-three enemy aircraft, and shot down eight others out of control. While leading an offensive patrol he shot down one enemy biplane in flames and drove down a second. A short time afterwards he, with four others, attacked about forty enemy scouts. He himself destroyed one in the air, drove another out of control and a third in flames, successfully accounting for five enemy machines in one day. ;2nd Bar to Military Cross :Lieutenant (Temporary Captain) John Gilmour, DSO, MC, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and RAF. ::For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in his leadership of offensive patrols. This officer has lately successfully engaged seven enemy machines, destroying five and shooting down two out of control. He has done splendid service.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilmour, John Inglis 1896 births 1928 deaths People from Helensburgh People educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers Royal Flying Corps officers Royal Air Force personnel of World War I Scottish flying aces British World War I flying aces Recipients of the Military Cross Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Suicides by cyanide poisoning Suicides in Westminster