Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

William Stanley Shirtcliffe was born on 19 November 1889 Timaru, the oldest son of Sir George Shirtcliffe and Jane Barbara née Massey, and was baptised on 23 December following at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Timaru. William was educated at Wellington College where, in 1904 at the school athletic sports, he was placed in a heat of the 250 yds handicap. William Stanley Shortcliffe married Norah Eskdale Kerr-Hislop on 15 June 1914 at All Saints’ Church, Foxton. In December 1915 he left Wellington for England and was accepted for the Aviation Corps. He gained his certificate on 24 May 1916 at Military School, Brooklands. Second-Lieutenant W. S. Shirtcliffe was confirmed in his rank in the Royal Flying Corps and appointed a flying officer in the military wing in October 1916. A letter from Lieut. W. S. Shirtcliffe, of the Flying Corps, gives a vivid and interesting description of a fight between British and German aeroplanes. Lieut. Shirtcliffe says: — “I had some photographs to take about seven miles over the lines, and with a protecting escort of five of our machines and two scouts the job looked fairly simple except for the ever-present ‘Archie’ (anti-aircraft fire), and for about half an hour or so things went well, although ‘Archie’ was rather too accurate to be at all pleasant. We had just about finished up, and my observer (Blenkiorn) was looking rather pleased with himself, when I observed nine Hun machines tackling our escort, who were about a quarter of a mile away and a bit higher. I waved to the observer to snap off the last two plates, intending to join in the fight, but a few seconds later I heard the noise of a machine-gun just behind me, and the smack of bullets hitting the engine behind me. I turned suddenly and found five Huns diving on our machine. I expected to see Blenkiorn open fire at the nearest one, but suddenly discovered that he was curled up in the bottom of the machine. At the same time my engine stopped and all I could do was to make for the lines on a steep glide, dodging and twisting to put the Huns off their aim. This was quite successful for some minutes, when one Hun discovered suddenly that we were not replying aboard so came within about ten feet of our tail and started to finish us up. Blenkiorn, who was badly hit in the thigh, recovered from his faint at this time, and with much difficulty and pain stood up and fired the back gun over the plane at the nearest machine. Fortunately he made good shooting for this one went down in flames at once. The next nearest then got a burst from Blenkiorn amd retired either wounded, or with his machine damaged. He tried to make a landing in a field, and turned over doing it, but I expect he would be all right. The other three decided that attacking us was unhealthy, so off they went. I managed to get my engine going again on the spare tank with no water in the radiator and one cylinder shot through, but managed to scrape into the aerodrome. Blenkiorn was shifted to the hospital at once, and about a quarter of an hour later all our machines came back, having beaten off the nine machines without serious damage to the machines except Sergeant Munros. which was rather knocked about. “My poor old machine was a sight — nearly wrecked. Altogether, however, the results were quite good. Fourteen Huns against eight of us, with the following casualties to the Huns: Two destroyed in flames (one by us), two driven down damaged (one by us), one forced to land with engine apparently damaged. The rest were chased all the way to their aerodrome. Blenkiorn got the Military Cross, which he richly deserved. “Well, we had a fairly quiet life after that mix-up till the following Sunday, when I led a very big bomb raid on one of the enemy aerodromes, which we bent a little. We had to fight a rearguard action all the way out again with seven hostile machines without, however, any damage on either side. “The following day there more photographs, and we were again tackled, but this time the gentle Hun was more cautious about coming close, with the result that none of us were damaged, while one of the Huns who was greatly interested in firing at me was tackled from above by one of our scouts and driven down, apparently hit in the engine, but he landed at an aerodrome all right.” Speaking of the intense cold, the writer says: “I haven’t tried to describe the cold in France, for really it was beyond all description. The ink in my office was always frozen, and if you melted it to a liquid and tried to write, it froze on the pen before you could get it to the paper. Reports written with boiling ink and a hot pen required no blotting, but when they were taken into a hot room, the ink melted and ran. This is no exaggeration at all — it actually happened. Trouble with engines was awful, because the carburetter would freeze up just as you left the ground, probably meaning a landing in a field, where it would have to be thawed out with hot cloths. The milk in the mess used to be frozen, despite huge fires.”' [Manawatu Times, 17 May 1816]. Mr and Mrs Mr. William Shirtcliffe returned to Wellington from England by the Bremen in January 1920. William Stanley Shirtcliffe died on 18 October 1951 at Auckland, aged 61. H was cremated and his ashes scattered at Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland. His only son, Pilot-Officer William John Shortcliffe, died on 25 February 1941 in an air accident in England while serving with the Royal Australian Air Force in World War Two.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [27 November 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [18 June 2021]; Evening Post, 18 November 1904, 5 April 1916, 28 January 1920, Manawatu Herald, 16 June 1914, NZ Herald, 17 October 1916, Manawatu Times, 17 May 1917 (Papers Past) [29 June 2021]; Waikumete cremation & burial records (Auckland Council) [16 June 2021]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

Related Documents

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Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

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