Guy Patrick Spence Reid | |
Birth Date: | 1897 5, df=yes |
Birth Place: | Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain |
Death Place: | Lincolnshire, England |
Placeofburial: | Newport Cemetery, Lincoln |
Placeofburial Coordinates: | 53.2408°N -0.5342°W |
Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
Branch: | British Army |
Serviceyears: | 1915–1917 |
Rank: | Captain |
Unit: | Seaforth Highlanders No. 20 Squadron RFC |
Battles: | World War I Western Front |
Awards: | Military Cross |
Captain Guy Patrick Spence Reid (18 May 1897 – 16 October 1917) was a British World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories.[1]
Reid was born in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife,[2] the son of Thomas Miller Reid and his wife Lisette (née Livings).[3] His father was the British Vice-Consul there.[2]
After passing out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's) regiment on 11 August 1915. Reid was granted Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificate No. 1693 on 4 September, after soloing a Maurice Farman biplane at the Military School, Farnborough,[4] and on 21 October he was appointed a flying officer, seconded to the Royal Flying Corps.
Reid was sent to France in January 1916,[2] to serve in No. 20 Squadron RFC. He gained his first aerial victory on 7 February, when he won the first clash between a Fokker Eindekker and the FE.2b by driving off the German aircraft with a smoking engine. By 6 September, he had run his score up to five, becoming one of the 44 aces that would serve in No. 20 Squadron during the war.[5]
He was awarded the Military Cross on 26 September, and on 30 October he was appointed a flight commander with the temporary rank of captain. In December he returned to England to serve as a flying instructor at an RFC base in Lincolnshire,[2] and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 January 1917.
On 16 October 1917, while instructing Second Lieutenant Cameron of Aberdeen, their aircraft crashed from a height of and both men were killed. He was, at the time, engaged to Miss Margaret Sheldon of Chelmsford.[2] He is buried in Newport Cemetery, Lincoln.[3]