Personal info
- Name: Horace James CANNON
- D.O.B: 26th Jul, 1895
- D.O.A: 26th Jan, 1918
- D.O.D: 21st Sep, 1975
- Award: Albert Medal translated to George Cross
- Occupation at time of action: Flight Sergeant, No 50 Training Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
Spittlegate Airfield, Grantham, Lincolnshire 26 January 1918
The First World War 1918
RAF Spittlegate, also known as RAF Spitalgate and RAF Grantham, was two miles southeast of Grantham, Lincolnshire. It was a Flying Training School in the First World War.
Citation
The KING has been pleased to award the Albert Medal in each of the following cases in recognition of gallantry displayed in saving or endeavouring to save life:- Flight-Serjeant Albert Edgar Warne, 24th Wing Aeroplane Repair Section, and Flight Serjeant Horace Cannon, No. 50 Training Squadron. On the 26th January last, while flying in England, a pilot when attempting to land lost control of his machine, which crashed to the ground from a height of about 150 feet, and burst into flames. Flight Sergeants Warne and Cannon went to the rescue of the pilot at great personal risk, as one tank of petrol blew up and another was on fire; moreover, the machine was equipped with a belt of live cartridges, which they dragged out of the flames. They managed to extricate the pilot, who was strapped to the burning plane, but he died shortly afterwards from his injuries and burns.
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