Flying Officer Walter Beales DCM (1893–1962) was a British flying ace credited with nine official victories during World War I, who also served during and after World War II.
Walter Beales | |
---|---|
Born | 1893 Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England |
Died | 1962 (aged 68–69) Goxhill, Lincolnshire, England |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | British Army Royal Air Force |
Rank | Flying Officer |
Unit | No. 48 Squadron RFC/No. 48 Squadron RAF |
Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
Awards | Distinguished Conduct Medal |
Other work | Commissioned in RAFVR during World War II |
Beales was the son of Alderman W. S. Beales. The younger Beales joined the Royal Flying Corps as a despatch rider in December 1914 and earned the 1914–1915 Star. Beales then switched roles to that of observer/gunner in the Bristol F.2 Fighters of 48 Squadron, which was operating on the Western Front.[1]
He scored his first aerial victory on 21 March 1918, destroying a German Pfalz D.III while piloted by William Lewis Wells. Two days later, the crew of Beales and Wells destroyed an LVG reconnaissance plane in the morning, and another LVG and a Pfalz D.III in the evening. On 28 March, Corporal Beales was wounded in the hand while in a dogfight with a German fighter; though Beales claimed he drove down the fighter out of control, the win went unverified.[1]
Beales brought down his fifth victim, an Albatros D.V, out of control on 1 April. On the 25th, flying with Charles Napier as his pilot, Beales destroyed a Rumpler. On 9 May, in a ten-minute dogfight, Beales and Napier drove down two Fokker Dr.I triplanes and a Pfalz D.III; in turn, they were brought down, probably by Germans from Jasta 46, but survived. Beales final tally was five German aeroplanes shot down and destroyed, four driven down out of control.[1]
For his efforts, Beales was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in April; it would be gazetted on 26 June 1918.[2]
Beales became a mortician at Weelsby Grove, Grimsby postwar.[1] A Walter Beales was the licensee of the Victoria Arms public house in North Creake, Norfolk from 1922 to 1937.[3]
In World War II, he would accept a commission in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and command a gliding school. He would later command his local Air Training Corps unit.[1] He gave up his commission as a flying officer in the RAFVR on 1 May 1951.[4]