New Posting and the birth of the RAF

For three ancestors in the Great War, the 1st April 1918 saw a day of change.

On the 1st April 1918 Frederick Charles Bush, my first cousin three times removed was serving in the Royal navy. He had enlisted in 1915 aged 18 and had been serving on a trawler HMT Wallington protecting the approaches to the Humber estuary until July 1917. After a period of training at the shore depot Pembroke II and a short month-long deployment back on board Waveney St. George, Frederick was posted to HMS Latona.

HMS Latona

HMS Latona was an Apollo class second class Cruiser and was one of 21 cruisers of the class.  Considered to be poor sea going ships and in poor sea conditions their fighting capability would be decreased severely with the waist guns not being able to cope with the conditions to be used successfully.  sometime between 1907  HMS Latona along with her sister ships HMS Apollo, HMS Intrepid, HMS Iphigenia, HMS Andromache, HMS Naiad and HMS Thetis were converted to minelayers.  During the initial years of the war Latona operated  from Dover and Sheerness but in 1915 became a depot ship in the Mediterranean.



The 1st April 1918 also saw the birth of the Royal Air Force, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). As part of this new service, both William J Wraight (Grand Uncle) and Maurice Edwin Bush (1st Cousin 3 times removed) were transferred from the RNAS to the newly formed Royal Air Force.

William Wraight had been serving as an Aviation Carpenters Mate, and Maurice Bush as a Air Mechanic, both were transferred to the same roles the newly formed Royal Air Force.

William’s older brother Solomon had recently joined the United States Army

Keeping the pilots in the air

On the 1^st August 1917, Maurice Edwin Bush (my 1^st Cousin 3 times removed) aged 25, was promoted from 2^nd Air Mechanic to 1^st Air Mechanic in the Royal Navy Air Service. He was still serving with 85 Squadron, who he had been with since enlisting in 1915. The squadron was based in England and in 1917 was mainly concerned with training pilots. The training itself was perilous and life expectancy once reaching the front was very short. Maurice's job was to keep the aircraft flying.

Maurice was born on the 21^st March 1892 in Paddington, Middlesex. He was the son of Alfred and Caroline Bush (nee Searle) and had 3 older sisters Ethel (born in 1880), Mabel (born in 1883) and Daisy (born in 1885). 

In 1911 the family were living at 119a Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth. Maurice was employed as a clerk with the Bombay Gas Company, Mabel and Daisy were both working as shop assistants. Maurice’s father Alfred was a Jewellers assistant.

His oldest sister Ethel had married Alfred Fox in 1907 in Wandsworth, Surrey and in 1911 were living in Kingswood Road, Clapham Park. Ethel had recently given birth to her second daughter – Rosie Ethel Fox. Her eldest daughter Hilda had been born in 1912.

Maurice had four cousins Alfred Charles Morris Bush had been killed in Gallipoli in 1915 whilst serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, Frederick Charles Bush serving in the Royal Navy had just returned to training at Pembroke II after serving on a harbour defence trawler in the Humber. William Alfred Bush was still in France serving with the Royal Army Corps after recently being promoted to Corporal. Charles Henry Bush also a corporal was based at New End Military Hospital in Hampsted.