Eric Fothergill Bainbridge was born in Jersey, and came to Chelmsford as an apprentice at Crompton’s electrical engineers. He joined the Royal Fusileers in November 1915, was commissioned into the Royal Flying Corps in April 1916 and was killed in aerial combat in France in September 1916. His home was in Braemar Avenue.
BAINBRIDGE, ERIC FOTHERGILL*, 2nd Lieutenant,
32nd Squadron, Royal Flying Corps (formerly of 29th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusileers)
The day’s Esssex County Chronicle carried a similar report:
“We regret to state that Sec.-Lieut. Eric Fothergill Bainbridge is reported missing. Lieut. Bainbridge, who was 18 years old, was the younger son of the late Mr. Reginald Bainbridge, tea planter, of Assam, and Mrs. Bainbridge, of Braemar Avenue, Chelmsford, and previous to the war was engaged with Messrs. Crompton & Co. Ltd. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, where he was a member of the College O.T.C. He was for some time a member of the Chelmsford Company of the Essex Volunteer Regt. He entered the University and Public Schools Battalion, and obtained a commission last April in the Royal Flying Corps. On the 5th inst. he was on patrol duty, accompanied by two other aircraft, when they were met by a superior enemy squadron.
Lieut. Bainbridge was seen to attack four of the enemy, but he in turn was attacked by two others. His comrades, who were also engaged, were unable to help him. He or his machine was hit, for the machine was seen to get out of control and fell to the ground within the German lines. Lieut. Bainbridge comes from old fighting
Eric was born on 11th December 1896 at St. Helier in Jersey, Channel Islands, the younger son of Reginald Newton Bainbridge and Emily Bainbridge. His father had been born c1842 in Putney, Surrey; his mother c1860 in Malta. Eric’s father had at least eight children from a previous marriage.
His siblings were: Godwin Augustus Bainbridge (1886-1940), Estelle Bainbridge (born 1888), Ruby Bainbridge (born 1892) and Edward Bainbridge (born 1899).
Eric was educated at St. Ignatias College in Malta and then Victoria College in Jersey. At the latter he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. He left the College on 31st August 1914.
After working as an apprentice electrician at Crompton’s in Chelmsford Eric subsequently volunteered for the army.
He passed a medical examination carried out in Chelmsford on 23rd November 1915 , which described him as five feet five and three-quarter inches tall, weighing 125 pounds
Six days later he attested to join the army for the duration of the war and was posted as Private 9695 with the 29th (Reserve) Battalion of the Royal Fusileers.
Within weeks of joining the army Eric applied to join the Royal Flying Corps, giving his permanent address as Valdona (later number 11 and today number 25, pictured), Braemar Avenue in Chelmsford, and his wartime address as 53 Mill Street, Olney in Oxford. His peacetime occupation was a Pupil Apprentice to Crompton and Company, electrical engineers of Chelmsford. His application, which stated he had knowledge of motor mechanics, and was countersigned by his mother as he was less than 21 years of age. On 18th January 1916 Eric passed his medical examination at Oxford and a week later his application was endorsed at Oxford by the commanding officer of Eric’s battalion.
A letter dated 5th March 1916 confirmed that Eric was successful so with effect from 15th April 1916 Eric was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant on the General List and Royal Flying Corps. He was directed to join at Christ’s Church College, Oxford on that date for instruction in aviation.
He trained for flying at Oxford and Hythe, and gained his Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificate (number 3004) on 27th May 1916 when flying a Maurice Farman Biplane at Military School, Brooklands in Surrey. Having received his commission he went out to France on 11th August 1916 and was posted to 32nd Squadron, Royal Flying Corps.
Eric went missing in aerial combat above the Somme on 5th September 1916, the date that was later assumed to be that of his death.
On 15th September 1916 the Essex Weekly News reported:
“Second-Lieut. Eric Bainbridge, reported missing, is the younger son of the late Mr. Reginald Bainbridge, tea planter, of Assam, and Mrs. Bainbridge, of Braemar-avenue, Chelmsford. Before the war Lieut. Bainbridge was engaged with Messrs. Crompton and Co. Ltd. He was for some time a member of the Chelmsford Company of the Essex Volunteer Regt. Having joined the University and Public Schools Battalion he obtained a commission in the Royal Flying Corps last April. On the 5th inst. he was on patrol duty, accompanied by two other aircraft, when they were met by a superior enemy squadron. Lieut. Bainbridge was seen to attack four of the enemy, but he in turn was attacked by two others. His comrades, who were also engaged, were unable to help him. His machine fell to the ground within the German lines.”
The day’s Esssex County Chronicle carried a similar report:
“We regret to state that Sec.-Lieut. Eric Fothergill Bainbridge is reported missing. Lieut. Bainbridge, who was 18 years old, was the younger son of the late Mr. Reginald Bainbridge, tea planter, of Assam, and Mrs. Bainbridge, of Braemar Avenue, Chelmsford, and previous to the war was engaged with Messrs. Crompton & Co. Ltd. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, where he was a member of the College O.T.C. He was for some time a member of the Chelmsford Company of the Essex Volunteer Regt. He entered the University and Public Schools Battalion, and obtained a commission last April in the Royal Flying Corps. On the 5th inst. he was on patrol duty, accompanied by two other aircraft, when they were met by a superior enemy squadron.
Lieut. Bainbridge was seen to attack four of the enemy, but he in turn was attacked by two others. His comrades, who were also engaged, were unable to help him. He or his machine was hit, for the machine was seen to get out of control and fell to the ground within the German lines. Lieut. Bainbridge comes from old fighting stock, and a wide circle of friends sympathise with the great anxiety felt by his family.”
stock, and a wide circle of friends sympathise with the great anxiety felt by his family.
By April 1918 Eric’s mother had left Braemar Avenue to live with her daughter Estelle at 115 Balfour Avenue in Ilford.
Eric has no known grave and is commemorated by the Arras Flying Services Memorial in France and on the war memorial at Our Lady Immaculate Church in New London Road, Chelmsford (pictured). However, his name is not one of the 359 remembered by the Civic Centre Memorial, Chelmsford, nor is he commemorated by the war memorial at St. John’s Church, Moulsham.
His brother Godwin Augustus Bainbridge served as a Lance-Corporal in 62 Company, Army Ordnance Corps during the First World War. He survived that war but was to die in 1940 from injuries sustained in a German air raid on London.
140308