Lieutenant Patrick Russell

Lieutenant Patrick Alfred Russell, Royal Flying Corps. He was killed in action with 22 Squadron in France on 2nd April 1917 during the Battle of Arras, aged 27. ( His Observer Lieutenant H. Loveland, a Canadian, also died ). He was the son of Margaret and the late Patrick Russell of Edinburgh and is buried in Villers Hill British Cemetery, Villers Guislain, Gouzeaucourt, France. This month was known in the R.F.C. as ” Bloody April ” as the Germans had air superiority for a while until the newer Allied aircraft such as the Bristol Fighter ,the SE 5 and the Sopwith Camel  wrested control back again. April saw the R.F.C lose over 300 pilots and observers. ( The C.W.G.C. site gives his rank as Second Lieutenant ). His headstone is inscribed ” His Death was as Noble as His Life”   22 Squadron R.F.C flew the Fe2b usually on photo reconnaissance missions and were pretty much defenceless.  Before joining the R.F.C he had fought with the Yeomanry. The Memorial gives his Service as the R.A.F. although it did not come into being with the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service on 1st April 1918. (The colour photograph is a replica Fe 2b).

Scroll to Top