Captain John William Pinder DFC (14 February 1898 – 16 August 1920) was a British

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 ...

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 ...

, who flew for the

Royal Navy Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

, and later the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Early life

John William Pinder was born on 14 February 1898 in

Deal, Kent Deal is a coastal town in Kent, England, which lies where the North Sea and the English Channel meet, north-east of Dover, England, Dover and south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town whose history is closely linked t ...

, England.''Above the Trenches'', p. 305.

World War I service

Pinder joined military service for World War I when old enough. On 22 October 1916, he was appointed as a probationary

flight officer The title flight officer was a military rank used by the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and also an air force rank in several Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, where it was used for female officers and was equiv ...

in the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

and posted to its headquarters on HMS ''President''. On 3 January 1917 he was riding in the rear seat of

Curtiss JN4 The Curtiss JN "Jenny" is a series of biplanes built by the Glenn Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft f ...

serial number 8820 when it crashlanded at

Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority. It is in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England, and is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdiv ...

, tearing off the undercarriage and damaging the propeller. After completion of training as a pilot, he was posted to No. 9 Squadron RNAS. During the unit's operations along the Belgian coast, he scored his first three aerial victories. He was subsequently appointed 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 ...

and transferred to No. 13 Squadron RNAS. By 5 December 1917, his score had risen to six, and he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. On 17 January 1918, he was reported accidentally injured in

Flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

newsletter, though the date of injury was not reported. By the end of April 1918, he had amassed 166 combat flight hours. By this time, No. 13 Squadron RNAS had been incorporated into the nascent

. This incorporation may account for the fact that on 13 May 1918, Lieutenant Pinder was appointed as a temporary captain while employed as such, as flight commanders in the RAF were ranked as captains. Pinder's Distinguished Flying Cross was finally

gazetted A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

on 3 June 1918. By the time Pinder left 213 Squadron at the end of August 1918 for an

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

post with the

Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from th ...

, his aerial victory score stood at 12. He would not remain at his new posting for long, as he joined

No. 45 Squadron RAF Number 45 Squadron is a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force. The squadron, which was established on 1 March 1916 as part of the Royal Flying Corps, currently provides flying training using Embraer Phenom T1s and operates under the command ...

of the

Independent Air Force The Independent Air Force (IAF), also known as the Independent Force or the Independent Bombing Force and later known as the Inter-Allied Independent Air Force, was a First World War strategic bombing force which was part of Britain's Royal Air ...

in October. He would score five more victories while serving in this squadron, bringing his total to 17.

List of aerial victories

Post World War I

After war's end, Pinder received some belated honours; on 3 June 1919 he was both

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

and received a

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in lieu of a second award of the Distinguished Flying Cross. On 17 June 1919, he was elected to

Royal Aero Club The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910. History The Aero Club was foun ...

membership. He was granted a short service commission as a Flying Officer in the RAF on 24 October 1919, though this appointment was later cancelled. On 6 December 1919, he transferred to the unemployed list of the RAF. After the war, Pinder was an aviation pioneer in South America. In August 1920, he was part of a group attempting the first flight between Brazil and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. Pinder teamed with Brazilian Lieutenant Aliatar Martins to make this flight in a Macchi M.9

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

. The aircraft disappeared. The bodies of Pinder and Martins were found on 27 August. Loss of a propeller had apparently crashed their aircraft. Other accounts give more detail. They state that Pinder and Martins landed in the Lagoa dos Esteves,

Içara Içara is a city in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. It is located 170 km south of Florianópolis, the state capital and around 890 km south of São Paulo. It is the Brazilian capital of the honey and tobacco industries, but is als ...

to repair a propeller. After it was fixed, they tried to restart the airplane's engine. In the process, Martins was knocked into the

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

by the propeller, and his arm was broken.http://www.canalicara.com/noticias/a-queda-que-fez-historia-em-icara-4001.html Translated via Google. Retrieved 29 January 2012. Pinder dived in to save him, but both men drowned. After the drownings, a search party found the seaplane in the lagoon and threatened to kill all the local men in the vicinity because there was suspicion of foul play. There was a general exodus of these men into the woods to hide from suspicion. One courageous local man aided the ten-day search. Pinder and Martins were originally buried in the first graves of the local cemetery, but were removed several years later.

References

* ''Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920''. Christopher F. Shores, Norman L. R. Franks, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1990. , . * ''Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America''. Dan Hagedorn, 2008. University Press of Florida. .

Endnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinder, John Royal Naval Air Service aviators 1898 births 1920 deaths British World War I flying aces People from Deal, Kent Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Deaths by drowning Military personnel from Kent Accidental deaths in Brazil