Military Pilots of Hull - David Arthur Stewart (1890-1924)

Image: David Arthur Stewart in his
flying coat and helmet, c.1915-1918.
[HDM Newspaper Collection,  27 Dec 1924] 

…he became one of Hull’s champion cyclists, and many prizes were gained locally and elsewhere. His nerve was always great and his brilliant career as an airman has caused a feeling of admiration amongst those who know him. [HDM Newspaper Collection, 27 Mar 1918]

Image: 44A Goodwin Street. [C THD.3.74.30]

Arthur as he would be known was born on 8 March 1890 at no. 44 1/2  Goodwin Street, to parents David J. Stewart, a coal dealer (former Mariner) from Canada and Ann Elizabeth Foster. He grew up with his adopted family who took him in aged 7 months. His mother passed away in 1891 and father, afterwards, with the rest of the family split up amongst relatives. His adopted mother, Louisa Stewart (no known relation) ran a private laundry business from their home on Day Street, called Dewar’s. Here Arthur worked as an errand boy before working his way up to manager. [HDM Newspaper Collection, 26 Dec 1924] 

Aged 17 he had already won a number of local competitions and trophies in cycling and came to wider prominence when he broke the record for the Hull to York and back cycle route, which he completed in 3 hours 49 mins.


By 1911 he had joined the Hull Thursday Road Club, whose membership required riders to cycle 100-miles in 11 hours! He was regularly competing in both road and track competitions. In June he competed at Herne Hill Velodrome in London as part of a 6-hour 100-mile pace race, he also joined the London Vegetarian Cycling Club.

Image: Arthur listed as holder of the Thompson
and Swift Trophies in 1910-1911 [L.796.6]

In November 1911 he turned his attention to running in the winter months joining the Health and Strength Harriers to keep his fitness. Going on to beat several English and Olympic champions and winning most of his races. He even competed to make the British cycling team at the Stockholm Olympics but was beaten to it by fellow Hull Cyclist J. W. Kirk. In 1913, he was living on Lister Street and worked as a tallyman when he married Dora A. Sharpe at St. James Church, Hull. Afterwards they moved in with her parents on Melrose Street.

Image: St James Church, Hull, c.1880s.
Demolished in 1957 [L.726.5 SJA/1]

In January 1915, shortly after war was declared Arthur enlisted at Pryme Street into the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), aged 25. His occupation at the time was a motor engineer. The aircraft was a relatively new invention and even more so to uses in war and as such the maintenance of them was an essential component to their success. Arthur joined up as a 2nd Class Air Mechanic (2/AM), given his occupation this likely meant he worked as an engine fitter or mechanic, though Air Mechanics carried out a plethora of other roles too.

From Hull he went to Farnborough, in Hampshire where the aircraft of the RFC were built and assembled. Here he would have been given some basic army training but primarily would have worked on the aircraft. After 7 months, in August, he was posted to France but was still keeping fit. Writing to his fellow sportsmen in Hull, he notes:

As sports follower you will be interested in learning that I won the 220, 440, and one mile flat events at a meeting organised by our squadron Royal Flying Corps, somewhere in France within sound of the guns. Kind regards, etc. Just a glimpse of old-time form, eh. Shall we ever get going again in England? What a hope? [HDM Newspaper Collection, 17 Sept 1915]

In April the following year he was promoted to 1/AM and had joined 20 Squadron based at Clairmarais, near St Omer, France, in the Ypres Sector. The squadron operated Bristol FE2B and later FE2D aircraft and Arthur would have been expected to help maintain them. 

Image: FE2D of no. 20 Sqn RFC, c. 1917
[ARCH-20A-003, Army Flying Museum]

     Moving up through the ranks he was         then selected for observer training.         This involved returning to England         to carry out various tests in                     navigation, weather, positioning,             wireless operation, aerial photography,      and aerial gunnery. By early May             1916, he had returned to his squadron      and was back flying. On the 19th he         was on an offensive patrol over                 Passchendaele and a German aircraft         appeared above him and his pilot.             Arthur fired up at it, the enemy aircraft      dropped its height and attacked, at             which point he fired another 3 drums      into the aircraft. However, at 10,000         feet his fingers were so cold he fumbled the next drum, and it flew back into the propeller, damaging it. The pilot had no choice but to break off and bring the aircraft back to British lines. He afterwards passed his observer training later that month. [R. A. Sellwood, Winged Sabres: One of the RFCs Most Decorated Squadrons, 2018, ch.4.]

In July the squadron played a supporting role at the Battle of the Somme, carrying out constant patrols from British lines to Lille to occupy the  enemy and stifle their ground reinforcements. Arthurs first aerial victories came at the start of August 1916, where he shot down two enemy machines, a brief account of the second can be seen below:

...while carrying out a height test, sighted a hostile machine over Ypres and attacked it. The fight lasted 10 minutes the F.E. firing 12½ drums of ammunition. The hostile machine was driven down from 11,000 to 5,000 feet, when it appeared to be out of control and it finally crashed to earth in a field near Gheluwe. [T. Donovan, Royal Flying Corps Communiques, 1915-1916, p.208]

On 26 August he was promoted to Corporal and having shown his skill in the air he was selected to carry out pilot training. He returned to England shortly afterwards and eventually took his test in December 1916 at the military training school at Brooklands, Surrey. 

His squadron was one of the most successful on the Western Front, however, it came at a cost. Between July and December 1916, the RFC lost almost 500 pilots and observers, and another 500 injured, such was the aggressive nature of the British plan to fight over enemy lines. 

Arthur then moved to the Central Flying School at Upavon on Salisbury Plain where he was officially awarded pilot status in February 1917. He was also promoted to Sergeant and attached to no.19 Reserve Squadron as an instructor, the unit was tasked with defending London from further air raids. 

He was only with this squadron for a few months before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant at which time he was posted to no. 18 Squadron, based at Auchel, west of Bethune, France. At the time the unit were involved heavily with day bombing raids. 

By November he was flying DH4’s, and when on the way back from a bombing run with a number of others his aircraft began having engine trouble and he could not stay with the formation. After dropping altitude, he spotted an enemy aircraft and despite his engine issues, dove on it, firing his front Lewis gun. The enemy fired back but after a short conflict fled, Arthur could not follow and returned. [AIR 1/1219/204/5/2634/81, National Archives]

Image: Example of a DH4 aircraft flown by Arthur with 18 Sqn RFC.
[Army Flying Museum, B43b]

In March 1918 came an aerial battle that would see Arthur awarded the Military Cross. On returning from a bombing run near Lille, he was intercepted by 30 enemy aircraft, at 4,000 ft and recalled that: 

...I attacked the leader of the nearest formation….saw him go down out of control…then found myself being attacked from all directions, principally from behind. My Observer shot down another…at very close range…I saw something fall out of the machine, probably the pilot…I stalled under another…after a burst of about ten rounds from my front gun…this machine dived out of control….My Observer was in the meantime engaged with four E.A. [enemy aircraft] on our tail. I did a climbing turn to enable him to have unrestricted fire…the other two attacked from above and below….[One] shot my Observer in the chest. He fell back but regained his balance & continued firing at the E.A. who had come in very close….the pilot of this machine was hit…and his machine fell out of control. My Observer fell back in the cock-pit & I was again attacked by 10 machines, having my aileron controls, one side of elevator control & other wires, etc., shot away, I spun down…and dived for our lines...[AIR 1/1219/204/5/2634/79, National Archives]

Unfortunately, his Observer, Lt. Mackay, died on route to hospital. Later that month he was promoted to temporary Captain and made a flight commander, meaning he was now responsible for several aircraft within the squadron. He continued to fly and shot down more enemy aircraft and in June 1918 he was awarded another MC for his continued efforts and valuable intel. By this time the squadron’s role had changed slightly and they were now carrying out evening reconnaissance, photography runs and low-level attacks. Arthur took part in several aerial combats over the ensuing months, and in November was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and was described as:

...An able leader, conspicuous for initiative and dash...[The London Gazette (Supplement), 1 Nov 1918. p. 12973]

After the war, Arthur remained in the RAF where upon he served in the Middle East, but he frequently returned to Hull and East Yorkshire, returning as a member to the Hull Thursday Road Club.

In January 1919, he was instructing at No. 1 School of Navigation & Bomb Dropping based at Stonehenge. A year later, he was posted to No. 216 Squadron RAF, based at Kantara, Egypt, near the Suez Canal. The squadron was carrying out mail delivery, route flying and survey work. Specifically, Arthur was delivering mail across the middle east, a duty which, on the 17th resulted in near catastrophe, when his DH10 aircraft lost power in the port engine, causing the aircraft to swing wildly out of control. Luckily Arthur and his co-pilot survived the ordeal. [Casualty Card. RAF MuseumStoryVault] He returned to England in February 1922, after receiving his next award, the rare Air Force Cross. This he was awarded for: 

…skill and courage in flying duties on the Cairo-Baghdad and Baghdad-Amman Air Routes...[AIR 30/46, National Archives]

He spent the next few years with the RAF on short term commissions, posted to no. 7 Squadron, Bircham Newton, Norfolk, a heavy night bomber squadron. He left the RAF in August 1924 to become a commercial pilot and began flying for Imperial Airways from Croydon airport, in Surrey. 

He had flown the Croydon to Paris route a number of times but on Christmas Eve 1924 his aircraft, after take-off was seen flying low and nosediving into the ground shortly after take-off, at which point it burst into flames. He, along with 7 passengers were all killed. The accident led to the first Public Enquiry for a civil aviation accident in the UK. The verdict of which was a malfunction of the aircraft, and the pilot was cleared. His body was transferred to Hull, arriving at Paragon Station amidst large crowds. It was reported in the newspaper that:

The plain oak coffin, bearing the remains…was covered with flowers, and open hearse, draped in purple, carried the remainder of the tributes…Among the mourners was Capt. Stewart’s little son, wearing his father’s war medals. [Air Crash Victim, Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 31 Dec 1924, p.3.]

He was buried on 30 December 1924 at Hull Western Cemetery.

Image: Burial register entry [C TCB/6] 

If you would like to find out more about Stewart, or any other RFC, AOP or GPR servicemen contact the Army Flying Museum at: Home | The Army Flying Museum 

Kyle Thomason, Librarian/Archivist