Albert Edgar Warne AM

b. 27/03/1895 Bittaford, Devon.  d. 13/10/1918 Grantham, Lincolnshire.

DATE OF AM ACTION: 26/01/1918 Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Albert E Warne AM

Albert was the youngest of three boys born to Richard Roose and Jane Warne (nee Spry). His older brothers were Ernest and Frederick. His childhood was spent in Ugborough, Devon, and after schooling, Albert became an apprentice carpenter, before the war intervened. In 1913, aged 18, he married Ethel Weller in Devonport. He enlisted at the onset of the war, and joined the Royal Flying Corps. He received his Albert Medal from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 22nd June 1918. Tragically, he only held the medal for less than 4 months, as he was killed in an aircraft accident at Grantham, Lincolnshire on 13th October 1918. He was buried in Ugborough, Devon.

 

AM CITATION:

On the 26th January last, while flying in England, a pilot when attempting to land lost control, of his machine, which crashed to the ground from a height of about 150 feet, and burst into flames. Flight Serjeants Warne and Cannon went to the rescue of the pilot at great personal risk, as one tank of petrol blew up and another was on fire; moreover, the machine (was equipped with a belt of live cartridges, which they dragged out of the flames. They managed to extricate the pilot, who was strapped to the ‘burning plane, but he died shortly afterwards from his injuries and burns.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: ST PETER’S CHURCHYARD, UGBOROUGH, DEVON.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD. SOLD AT DNW IN SEPTEMBER 2018 FOR £6,500. 

Acknowledgements:

Paul Barnett – Image of the Warne AM Card

Dix Noonan Webb – Image of the Warne Albert Medal and Bronze Plaque.