Reconstruction Sop with 1-1/2 Strutter © TMWOLF. ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Modified sky
Lieutenant Noel Henry Boles
Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) formerly Dorsetshire Regiment
Killed in action
Date of Birth: 6th of December 1892
Place of Birth: Camelford, Cornwall
Date of Death: 11th of January 1916
Buried: Lancashire Landing Cemetery, Turkey (Including Gallipoli)
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, The British War Medal, and the Victory Medal
Noel was born on the 6th of December 1892 and baptized on the 29th of January 1893 at Breward, Cornwall. His parents were Reverend Canon Richard Henry Boles and Florence Lucy Boles.
In 1901, Noel and his family were living at The Vicarage, St Winnow, Bodmin, Cornwall.
| Noel Henry Boles' siblings | |
| Dorothy Boles 1891 | Noel Henry Boles 1892 |
| Geraldine Nina Boles 1898 | |
The children had a live-in Governess, Frances M Hony, aged 28, a live-in cook, parlourmaid, nurse, groom, and gardener.
In 1911, Noel was a boarder at The Manor House, York Place, Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire, where he was an Army student. The tutor was, George E B J Crawford, aged 45, and a ‘Tutor For Army C S And Universities And Examiner’, who was born in France.
Noel Henry Boles posing outside the vicarage in his flying gear - Photo courtesy of the Boles family and Richard Powell
Lieutenant Noel Henry Boles, 2nd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment, attached 3rd Naval Wing, Royal Naval Air Service, was killed in action when he was shot down, together with his pilot, Sub-Lieutenant Cecil Horace Brinsmead, by Hauptman Hans Schüz off Cape Helles on the 11th of January 1916.
On Tuesday the 11th of January, Cecil Brinsmead suited up and clambered aboard a Henry Farman, his observer was Lieutenant Noel Henry Boles of the Dorsetshire Regiment, another relative newcomer (at the end of October 1916) to this theatre of war. Boles had reached Imbros only a month before Brinsmead.
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Henry Farman biplane - SMU Central University Libraries No restrictions
The 23-year-old Englishman had been serving in India with the 2nd Dorsets when war was declared.
Noel Henry Boles at Poona, India - Photo courtesy of the Boles family and Richard Powell
Just before his regiment received orders to proceed to the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant Boles was put out of action by a severe attack of illness and, he was invalided home by the regiment doctor.
Noel Henry Boles with his father Canon Richard Henry Boles - Photo courtesy of the Boles family and Richard Powell
Noel did not enjoy being idle and as soon as he had recovered, but long before he had regained his normal strength he was on his way to the Near East again in the track of the Dorsets.
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was desperately short of trained observers, and Boles’ application must have been well received. In July 1915 he attended the RNAS station at Shoreham for instruction as an observer, with further training, probably in wireless, at Brooklands.
On the 23rd of September, he embarked for the Aegean.
On the 11th of January, Brinsmead, and Boles met Buddecke and Schüz in the cold, clear air over Cape Helles.
Hans Joachim Buddecke with a Fokker E III 96 15 - Photo courtesy of the Boles family and Richard Powell
The German Fokkers appear to have taken the British airmen by surprise
Fokker EIII 210 16 Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66916
Wing Commander Eugene Gerrard, in a letter to Boles’ father, says the pair were attacked from behind simultaneously by two hostile aeroplanes.
The Henry Farman was hit and its wings are folding upward and it went down into the sea. British torpedo boats came and fished him out.
Logbook entry of HMS Ribble:
2.47 pm: The Allied aeroplane brought down by 2 hostile machines, closed at full speed. HMS Laforey picked up two bodies and proceeded to K.
The bodies of Brinsmead and Boles, recovered from the Aegean, were taken aboard HMS Hibernia, anchored in Kephalo Bay.
Lieutenant Noel Henry Boles burial - Photo courtesy of the Boles family and Richard Powell
Our medical officer went aboard and interviewed the PMO [Principal Medical Officer] of the ship who had made the examination. I learned from him that the only wounds sustained by Noel were a bullet through the left wrist – it passed through his wrist-watch – and some scratches. The pilot had only scratches. It seems as though some part of the control was carried away. Death was caused in both cases by fracture of the skull and must have been instantaneous.
The graves of Brinsmead (left) and Noel Henry Boles (right) at K Beach cemetery - Photo courtesy of the Boles family and Richard Powell
Noel Henry Boles commemorative certificate
Download the commemorative certificate
