LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant William Raymond HYAM
Service No: 3
Born: Thirsk, Yorkshire, 20 January 1891
Enlisted in the Army: 20 October 1914
Unit: No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Died: Wounds from Air Operations (No. 1 Squadron BE2c aircraft 4312), Sheik Abbas Ridge, Sinai, 30 March 1917, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Kantara War Memorial Cemetery, Suez Canal, Egypt
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George Harding Hyam and Edith Hyam. Native of Thirsk, England
Place of Association: Bairnsdale VIC
Remembered: Panel 9, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Next morning (28 March) the artillery aeroplanes reported no enemy within range of the British guns. Captain Rutherford (1) and Lieutenant W. R. Hyam (Observer), in one of these artillery machines (2), were attacked from below by an Aviatik; both pilot and observer were wounded, and Hyam later died of his wounds. Murray Jones flew to their assistance and chased off the enemy, who had the speed of the Australian machines and could escape at will. This was the first serious air combat fought by No. 1 Squadron, and was the beginning of a long contest which ended in the driving of the Germans absolutely from the air.
(1) Captain David Wallace Rutherford; No. 1 Squadron (previously Light Horse) Salesman; of Rockhampton, QLD; born Rockhampton, 29 September 1890
(2) BE2c aircraft 4312
Extract from Cutlack, F.M. (Frederic Morley) The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War 1914-8, Angus and Robertson Ltd Sydney, 1941 – Page 60
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, HYAM W R
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Card 275127, 143474
Bibliography:
Lax, M. (Mark) (editor) One Man’s War: Aircraft Mechanic Joe Bull’s Personal diaries 1916-9, Banner Books, Maryborough QLD 4650, 1997
Roberts, E.G. (Eric Glendower) (250197) Box Kites and Beyond, The Hawthorn Press Melbourne VIC 3000, 1976
Sutherland, L. W. (Leslie) Aces and Kings, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1935
Williams, Sir R. (Richard) (1) These are Facts: the Autobiography of Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams KBE, CB, DSO, Australian War Memorial and Australian Government Publishing Service, 1977 – Chapters 3-9