Old Hulmeians War Memorial 1914 - 1919

JOSEPH LEYLAND ALLISON

28 September 1898 - 18 March 1918

At School 1911 - 1914

Flight Sub Lieut Royal Naval Air Service

Joseph was born in Manchester and in 1911 was living at Ardwick Green Industrial School with father James, Governor of the school, mother Annie, Matron, and his two brothers. In 1914, his last year at School, he was vice captain of cricket and football. On leaving School he was apprenticed with Mather & Platt, a long established Manchester engineering firm.

Joseph enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service as a Probationary Flight Officer on 28th August 1917 and after a period of training at Vendome, France, received his Royal Aero Certificate on 28th October. Joseph returned to England in November 1917, to Cranwell, and obtained a commission as a Flight Sub-Lieutenant. He transferred to Manston War Flight on 20th January 1918 and on 8th February 1918 transferred to Dunkirk, France, where he joined the 3rd Naval Squadron, flying Sopwith Camels.

The Camel was notoriously difficult for inexperienced flyers to control and on 16th February 1918 Joseph crashed and completely wrecked Camel B6288. Fortunately he was not injured in that incident but on 18th March 1918 he was reported missing when he failed to return from a mission.

The Sky Their Battlefield reported "flying Sopwith Camel B7217, seen in a dive with enemy aircraft on tail near

Haubourdin 11.05 a.m. After combat Ltn H

von Haebeler, Jasta 36, claims Sopwith at Gondecourt at 11.20." Joseph had lasted less than two months at the Front.

Joseph crashed behind German lines and was reported dead by the German authorities.

He was buried by the Germans in Gondecourt Communal Cemetery German Extension.

After the war the Commonwealth War Graves Commission concentrated graves in Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, from the battlefields and cemeteries of the surrounding areas.

Joseph's body was one of many exhumed from

their existing resting places and reburied in the cemetery. On 20th January 1920 probate was granted to James Allison, governor of an industrial school. Effects £147 10s 3d.

Biography Manchester University

Joseph Leyland Allison

Flight Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Naval Air Service.
Died 18th March 1918, aged 19.
Buried at Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, France.
Student of electrical engineering.

Joseph was born in 1899, to James and Annie Allison, of Ardwick Green School, Manchester.
He was educated at St Oswald’s School, Ellesmere and Hulme Grammar School where he was
captain of cricket and football.
In 1916-17 he passed the 2nd Year of the Associateship Course for Electrical Engineering
(Intermediate) and was an apprentice with Messrs. Mather and Platt.
Joseph enlisted with the Royal Naval Service as a probationary flight officer in August 1917
and after a period of training in France returned to Cranwell in November 1918 where he gained
his Flight Sub-Lieutenant commission. He then joined the 3rd Naval Squadron in France
and suffered a crash in February 1918, but was not injured. In March 1918 it was reported that he
had failed to return from a mission and had been seen diving with an enemy aircraft on his tail.
The German authorities reported that he had crashed and died and they buried him.
He left effects worth £147 10s 3d to his father who was a governor of an industrial school.

Make a free website with Yola