Richard M. Trevethan

Squadron Leader Richard Michael Trevethan MC (24 January 1895 – 30 December 1971) was a British World War I flying ace credited with twelve aerial victories.^[1]

Early life and background

Richard Trevethan was born in Park City, Utah in 1895, to Michael Trevethan and his wife Clara Emma (née Pearce).^[1] The Trevethan's were a long established family from Perranzabuloe in Cornwall,^[2][3] an area with a strong mining tradition.^[4] This may have been what took his parents to the United States, as Park City had been established as a mining town.^[5] However, by 1901 the family had returned to Cornwall, and were residing at St Kew.^[1] Trevethan attended Falmouth Grammar School, Portsmouth Grammar School, and the Imperial College of Science, London.^[6]

World War I service

On 22 September 1914, Trevethan was commissioned a temporary second lieutenant^[7] and served in the 6th Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment,^[8] seeing active service in France and in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915.^[9][10]

On 14 May 1917, Trevethan was transferred the General List to serve in the Royal Flying Corps,^[11] and was posted to No. 20 Squadron RFC to fly a two-seater F.E.2.d fighter.^[1] His first aerial victory came on 2 June 1917, with AM2 John Cowell as his gunner, and he gained his second a week later, on 9 June, with Second Lieutenant M. Dudbridge.^[1] He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1917,^[12] and then ran up a string of ten more victories between 2 July and 9 August, all but one with Lieutenant Campbell Hoy as his gunner. In total, Trevethan was credited with destroying six Albatros fighters and driving down another six out of control.^[1]

On 17 August 1917 Trevethan was awarded the Military Cross, which was presented to him in the field by General Sir Herbert Plumer, but not gazetted until 17 September. The citation read:

Temporary Second Lieutenant Richard Michael Trevethan, General List and Royal Flying Corps.

"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when on offensive patrols. He has continuously displayed the greatest dash and determination in attacking enemy formations, regardless of their superiority in numbers, and has shot down at least four, driving others down out of control."^[13]

His squadron was then re-equipped with the new Bristol F.2 two-seater fighter, but on 18 September 1917, Trevethan was badly wounded. He returned to England to recover, and does not appear to have seen any further active service during the war.^[6][14]

List of aerial victories

Post-war career

On 1 August 1919, Trevethan was granted a permanent commission as a flying officer in the Royal Air Force.^[15] On 22 December 1919, he received a mention in despatches^[16] while serving with the British "Syren Force" in Murmansk, northern Russia, during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. He was also awarded the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class, by the Russians.^[6]

He then served in No. 207 Squadron RAF, receiving promotion to flight lieutenant in the 1922 New Year Honours.^[17] In September 1922 Trevethan was about to be reassigned to the RAF School of Photography,^[18] but this was cancelled,^[19] when No. 207 Squadron was sent to Turkey as a result of the Chanak Crisis. Trevethan, in command of the advance party, travelled from RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk, to Liverpool, where the squadron and its aircraft were loaded onto the steamships Eboe and Khartoum, and sailed for Constantinople, arriving on 11 October. The squadron, under the command of Squadron Leader Arthur Tedder, had considerable difficulties unloading, reassembling, and operating their Airco DH.9A aircraft, due to the lack of facilities and the poor state of the airfield at San Stefano. However, the crisis was eventually settled by negotiation, and the squadron returned to England in August 1923, proceeding to its new home at RAF Eastchurch.^[20]

On 22 October 1923 Trevethan was posted to No. 39 Squadron, also flying the DH.9A, based at RAF Spitalgate,^[21] until reassigned to the RAF Depot at Uxbridge on 24 August 1925.^[22] On 21 September 1926 he was posted to the headquarters of Iraq Command,^[23] serving as Senior Meteorological Officer,^[6] until returning to the RAF Depot at Uxbridge on 26 January 1929.^[24] He was posted to No. 100 Squadron, based at RAF Bicester on 4 June 1929,^[25] and then from August 1931 until April 1933 (when it became 824 Naval Air Squadron) he commanded No. 440 (Fleet Reconnaissance) Flight, flying Fairey IIIF biplanes, and alternating between RAF Kai Tak, Hong Kong, and the carrier HMS Hermes,^[26][27] also receiving a promotion to squadron leader on 1 December 1932.^[28] He then commanded the Flying and Parachute Test Squadron at the RAF Home Aircraft Depot at RAF Henlow from November 1934^[29] until retiring from the RAF on 1 June 1935.^[30]

In 1937, he became Air Advisor to the Kwantung Government in China. During the Second World War, he was attached to the Admiralty, serving as mate and second officer in Royal Navy small ships. Post-war he was made a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and was for many years Superintendent of the Falmouth Meteorological Observatory.^[6]

Trevethan died on 30 December 1971,^[31] at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske, Truro.^[6]

Personal life

In 1920 Trevethan married Muriel Doris Moon, the daughter of Major Wilfred Graham Moon, and granddaughter of Sir Edward Moon, but they were divorced in 1936.^[32] They had a son, Gerald Michael Trevethan.^[2]

References