LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant Jack Diamond Sumner POTTS
Service No: Not Assigned
Born: London, England, April 1896
Enlisted in the Army: 11 May 1915
Unit: No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Died: Air Operations (No. 1 Squadron RE.8 aircraft B5854), Palestine, 4 January 1918, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Arthur Ernest and Luaetia Nannette Potts, of “Arcadia,” Longueville, Sydney, New South Wales. Native of England
Place of Association: Lane Cove NSW
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Longueville Public School Honour Roll (World War I), Lane Cove NSW
On January 4th, No. 1 Squadron sent ten machines in another joint raid, this time against Jenin aerodrome. Again enemy scouts attacked the patrol on the way home. On this occasion the Albatros scouts had the advantage of broken clouds, which permitted a surprise attack. One Albatros suddenly dived from a cloud upon an RE.8 from No. 113 Squadron (1), and as this machine span away it collided with an Australian RE.8 (2) (Lieutenants J. D. S. Potts and V. J. Parkinson (3)), and both machines fell and crashed. Of the Australians, Potts was killed instantly, and Parkinson was injured. The information was conveyed to the squadron by a message dropped from a German aeroplane.
(1) RE8 aircraft crewed by Second Lieutenant Alfred Butt RFC and Captain Harold Hewett MC RFC who were both killed
(2) RE8 aircraft B5854
(3) Lieutenant Vincent John Parkinson (336); No 1 Squadron, Wireless Operator; of Sydney NSW, born Auckland, NZ, 8 July 1892
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 96
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, POTTS JACK DIAMOND SUMNER
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Card 282837, 228646
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
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