James Claude Scott Hendry AM

b. 25/09/1887 Kilmarnock, Scotland. d.  06/07/1918 off Tresco, Isles of Scilly.

DATE OF AM ACTION: 11/03/1914, 28/07/1914, and 19/11/1914 off Yarmouth, Norfolk.

James C S Hendry AM

James Claude Scott Hendry was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, on 25 September 1887 to Cochrane Scott Hendry, a commercial traveller, flour dealer and general shop assistant, and his wife Edith. Hendry joined the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday as a Boy, 2nd Class, being trained as a wireless telegraphist. Here he rose to the rank of Petty Officer Telegraphist R.N. attached to Staff Commander in Chief, the Nore. Transferring to the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps pre-war, he was one of the pioneer airmen of what would become the Royal Naval Air Service in July 1914. Gaining his Royal Aero Club aviator’s certificate (No.604) on 20 August 1913, he nonetheless appears to have spent little time as a pilot, preferring to fly as an observer where he could carry out a variety of experiments in W/T from aeroplanes.

By the beginning of 1914 Hendry was heavily involved in W/T testing within the Navy’s air arm. On 11 March that year, whilst flying as observer in a Henry Farman pusher biplane seaplane, serial 98, the aircraft crashed at sea off Felixstowe. Unharmed, he helped his pilot to what remained of the aircraft and together they clung to this until rescued. Then, on 23 July he flew as observer to Squadron Commander C.L. Courtney during the Royal Review, before returning to Yarmouth five days later from Spithead, near Calshot. This trip was made as observer to FL Reginald Bone in a Henry Farman F.22H seaplane, serial 141. Approaching Yarmouth their aircraft suffered an engine failure and FL Bone was forced to make an emergency landing. The seaplane overturned in the rough conditions, slightly injuring Bone in the process, but again he and an unharmed Hendry were able to cling to one of the aircraft’s floats until rescued.

After the start of the Great War, Hendry remained at Yarmouth where he continued his W/T work in aircraft. One of the aircraft involved in this work was Sopwith HT tractor biplane, serial 58, which had been one of three such aircraft ordered by the Admiralty in 1913.

On 19 November 1914 Hendry was flying as observer to FL Cyril Lan-Davis in No.58. On approach to land at Yarmouth, Lan-Davis jettisoned his bombs at sea rather than attempt to land with them, but left it too late to do so safely. One bomb exploded directly beneath their tail and blew the latter off, causing the aircraft to abruptly dive into the sea from an altitude of 150 feet. Hendry, who was not strapped in, was thrown from the aircraft at this altitude into the sea, whilst Lan-Davis went down with the aircraft. On striking the water Hendry collected himself and swam to the fast sinking wreckage, where he discovered his pilot still trapped and unconscious in his cockpit below the surface and in imminent danger of drowning. Diving down in amongst the wreckage, Hendry freed FL Lan-Davis and then surfaced with him, keeping him afloat until they could both be rescued by the drifter Noreen.

For his outstanding bravery Hendry was subsequently awarded the Albert Medal, as not only had he saved his pilot’s life on this occasion, but he had also assisted his pilots greatly on two previous occasions when they had force landed at sea. Sadly for Lan-Davis, his reprieve was to prove temporary as he was listed as missing, presumed drowned, on 14 October 1915 after the small boat he took passage on failed to reach Malta, whilst he was attached to HMS Ark Royal at Imbros, in the Aegean. Ironically, he was en route to Malta to have some remedial dental work done following another crash he was involved in at Hendon. Still stationed at Yarmouth a year later, James Hendry married Florence Greenacre in Great Yarmouth on 23 October 1915. Over the next 18 months he went on to carry out instructional and experimental work at Eastchurch Central Flying School and at Cranwell, where he was Senior NCO Instructor in W/T.

On 7 May 1917 Hendry was promoted to (Temporary) Warrant Officer 2nd Class, and in September that year was posted to the RNAS station at Tresco, on the Scilly Islands, there to join 350 and 351 Flights, which were engaged in anti-submarine patrolling. On 1 April 1918, still at Tresco, Hendry was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant (observer) in the newly formed RAF. Hendry was not fated to survive the war. On 6 July 1918 he and his pilot, FL Cyril Capes, took off from Tresco on an anti-submarine patrol in Short 184 serial N2963 but became lost and eventually were forced to land at sea when their fuel ran out. Despite an intensive search by other aircraft at Tresco over the following days, no trace of them or their aircraft was found. His body eventually washed up on the coast of France, and he was buried in Guilvinec Communal Cemetery. 

 

AM CITATION:

Not gazetted.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: GUILVINEC COMMUNAL CEMETERY. GUILVINEC, FRANCE.

NEAR SOUTH LEFT BOUNDARY.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD. SOLD AT SPINK’S IN 2007.