Lady Agnes' Two Fiancés

Lady Agnes was cheered before she was kissed by George to the sound of more cheers. But she was saddened to see so many faces she had known were no longer there and that the pilots seemed even younger than before. The RFC was losing so many pilots and new trainees either died in the first few weeks of combat or survived for a few months.

In mid 1917 Lady Agnes' Short Bomber was taken out of service, as were all Short Bombers which were now replaced by the Handley Page 0/100. She was given an early model that had been shot up and needed repair but once airworthy and painted with Red Crosses she could now carry four to six stretcher cases on each flight.

Six months after George has returned to his unit as a fighter pilot Agnes was surprised to see the Base Commandant waiting for her to land, sitting in his Crossley. She expected bad news. It was -- the worst. George had been killed in action, crashing about half a mile from his base but already dead, riddled with machine gun bullets before his plane went down.

Agnes had now lost two RFC fiancés, and was numb. But she continued to fly at least twice daily to and from Wimereux.

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Three months later, close to Christmas 1917, Agnes received a letter in an unfamiliar handwriting, forwarded from her home in England. She was puzzled. It had been posted three months earlier. It bore the markings of the German Imperial postal service, had been censored in Germany and again in England before being resealed. She opened it very carefully.

She started to cry. It was a letter from Ernest. He had dictated it to a nurse who could speak English. When he had been shot down his plane had caught fire. His hands and face had been badly burned but he had managed a sort of landing and had been pulled out of the blazing wreck by some German soldiers. His burns had meant that he couldn't see -- his eyes were closed by the swelling on his face. He couldn't speak. His lips were burned too much. He couldn't write nor feed himself because of the burns on his hands, and all his identity documentation had been lost in the fire. The Germans didn't know who he was except that he was an RFC pilot.

It took three months before he was able to see and speak but no one around him spoke English and his German was non-existent. After another month he was able to say his name, rank and number but although the Germans had tried to inform the British Authorities that he was now a wounded prisoner of war, that communication had been lost in transit.

He had been able to dictate this letter to a nurse who knew some English and he was beginning to understand and speak some German although speaking anything was still difficult. He had been told by another wounded prisoner that Agnes' Field Dressing Station had been moved but he didn't know where she was now so had asked for the letter to be sent to her home.

After the first week his injuries had never been life-threatening but his burns meant that his face was badly scarred and would be for the rest of his life. In the circumstances he would be prepared to release Agnes form their engagement because she would not want to marry a man who no longer looked human.

Those words made Agnes cry again. No matter what he looked like now, Ernest was the man she had been first engaged to, and would always be the man she wanted to marry. She wasn't going to give him up just because he didn't look as he had. She suspected that he was minimising his injuries and would need constant care for years. As his wife, assisted by the family servants, she could and would do that for the man she loved. George had also been someone she loved, but only a second best, a very good second best, but not her first love that she thought she had lost forever.

With tears streaming down her face, Agnes took off one of her mourning RFC brooches and replaced it with a plain silver one to show she was engaged still to Ernest.

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Three months later the medical director surprised her by asking if she could fly to Switzerland. The Red Cross had arranged an exchange of severely injured prisoners of war. The Germans, French and British would be exchanged at an airfield in Switzerland, close to the French and German borders. As the only pilot flying a Red Cross aircraft, would she do it?

Of course she would. The prisoners would arrive by ambulance train and most would leave the same way, but some, the worst injured, would be better flown from Switzerland.

It took Agnes, with an experienced RFC bomber pilot beside her, a whole day to fly to the French air base closest to Switzerland. The next day she ferried several loads of French injured to the nearest French air base. There were three British wounded and Agnes was ecstatic that one was Ernest. He was startled to find that she considered them still engaged, despite having received several letters from her saying just that. The RFC pilot flew them to the first refuelling stop while Agnes held Ernest's arm above his burn scars and kissed where she could.

She resumed her pilot seat as Ernest, still drugged with painkillers, slept for almost all the flight to Wimereux where he would be assessed before being sent to a specialist hospital back in England.

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Over the next week, while Ernest was in hospital in Wimereux, after every time Agnes landed there and while her plane was being serviced for the return journey, she visited Ernest. He still didn't believe that she wanted him. Agnes decided on direct action. She got a special licence and an Army Chaplain and married Ernest while he was still in a hospital bed. She told him, forcefully, that all he had to say was 'I do' at the appropriate time. The ceremony was attended by the RFC base commander, some of the longer serving RFC pilots and some of the nursing staff. Two days later Ernest was evacuated to a specialist hospital in England, but now as Agnes' husband.

Agnes continued her duties until the Armistice in November 1918 and was only able to return to England just before Christmas 1918. Her parents' house had been turned into a nursing home for recovering officers and Agnes was able to arrange for Ernest to come there for Christmas, in between more operations on his hands and face. It was the start of 1920 before Ernest was considered recovered enough to join Agnes as her husband, but she had employed a couple of former VADs to look after Ernest and dress his wounds several times a day. It was 1922 before they could consummate their marriage but Agnes was certain Ernest was worth waiting for...

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Author's note. This story was inspired by my eldest aunt. She was engaged, consecutively, to two RFC pilots during WW1. After the first was killed in action she became engaged to his younger cousin a year later but he too was killed about a month after their engagement. She always said 'I lost two good ones and those that were left after the war were too damaged for me to consider." She remained single for the rest of her long life.