The Aviation Historian — January 2018

120 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22

is highly unlikely that a General would ask for

the opinions of junior officers. The latter idolised

Bishop, whose reputation as an ace has since

come under scrutiny. But the wild social life is

sharply contrasted with the frequent litany of the

names of the American pilots who were killed

flying, and Hillier’s endnotes confirm that these

are far from fictional.

As time goes on, Springs lapses into moments

of anguish as the war has its inevitable effect on

him: “Few men know what real fear is. It grows

on you. I’ve never been serious about anything

in my life and now I’ll never be otherwise

again”. As Hillier says, if this is partly fiction, it

was written by someone who was there.

ADRIAN ROBERTS

Pioneers, Showmen and the RFC: Early

Aviation in Ireland 1909–1914

By Guy Warner; Colourpoint Books (available from http://www.

colourpointbooks.co.uk); 8¼in x 10¼in (210mm x 260mm);

softback; 160 pages, illustrated; £16. ISBN 978-1-780731-

06-3

OVER THE YEARS there have been various

histories of aviation in Ireland, some better

than others, but this is the first to concentrate

on the pre-First World War era. Fortunately it

is a good one, as it is unlikely that the subject

will be covered in any detail again. The author

has tackled the subject chronologically, and has

adhered strictly to his title, dealing with aviation

and trespassing into aerostation only briefly to

devote some space to balloonist John Dunville

and his forebears.

To support his informative text the author

has amassed a good collection of images, some

familiar, but a good many refreshingly “new”

or at least lesser-known, depicting airmen,

aeroplanes and period paper ephemera. Liberal

use is made of contemporary quotations from

Springs and his friend John McGavock
Grider arrived in the UK in September 1917,
trained as military pilots, were recruited by
Billy Bishop when he formed the Royal Flying
Corps’ No 85 Sqn with S.E.5a scouts, and
both went out to France in May 1918. Springs
stated that the account is mostly taken from
the diaries of Grider, and it is written as if
by Grider in the first person. However, the
narrative continues after Grider was killed on
June 18 that year. Nine days later Springs was
wounded and went to the US Air Service’s
148th Aero Sqn, then flying Sopwith Camels,
but the diary continues as if by Grider with No
85 Sqn, until August 27, when Grider is stated
to have been killed. Springs was criticised on
publication of the first edition for not making
it clear that much of the narrative came from
Grider, and he corrected this in later editions.
One wonders if almost all of it was actually
Springs’s work and he used Grider’s point of
view as a literary device and to commemorate
his friend who died tragically young.
The first half of the original narrative
recounts the pair’s training, and their wild
social life in Britain — plenty of womanising
and stupendous amounts of drinking occurred.
They were no different from 21-year-olds at
any time before or since. This section is worth
reading for its social history angle; our great-
grandmothers were not as innocent as we are
led to believe!
An account of one man’s experience of war,
this book is valuable as a human testament,
but not perhaps to be trusted as a primary
source of research. Every detail of Springs’s
account of James McCudden’s fatal crash is
incorrect, and even Hillier incorrectly states
that the aircraft caught fire, despite there
being no evidence of it doing so. Springs
claims that “the General” asked the officers
who they wanted as a replacement CO
after Bishop was recalled to Canada, but, as
McCudden’s biographer Alex Revell says, it