Captain John Stevenson Stubbs DFC AFC was an English First World War

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

credited with 11 official victories. He was a pioneering bomber pilot who was the war's leading ace for the British Airco DH.9. He also carried off the rather unusual feat of destroying an enemy observation balloon with a bomber.

Early life

John Stevenson Stubbs was born on 24 September 1894. He was named after his father, who was a grocer. His mother was Jessie Stubbs. They were living at 235 County Road, Walton-on-the-Hill, Lancashire, England at the time the child was christened. (There is a discrepancy between the birth certificate 35and the baptism record transcription 25as to the house number of the family home). The younger John Stevenson Stubbs attended Longmoor Lane School, followed by a year's enrollment at

St. Bees School , motto_translation = Enter so that you may make progress , established = (reformed 2015–2018) , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

for 1910."John Stevenson Stubbs"
The Aerodrome. Retrieved 30 April 2011.

World War I

Stubbs enlisted in the 3rd Battalion,

South Lancashire Regiment The South Lancashire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment, which recruited, as its title suggests, primarily from the South Lancashire area, was created as part of the Childers Ref ...

to serve in World War I. On 26 January 1916, he was promoted to temporary lieutenant. On 4 January 1917, he was appointed a Flying Officer with orders to remain seconded from the Garrison Battalion, Liverpool Regiment. Stubbs served in France with No. 27 Squadron RFC (later

No. 27 Squadron RAF No. 27 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Boeing Chinook from RAF Odiham. History First World War 27 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps formed at Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on , being split off from 24 Squadron. Initially using air ...

) from 24 February until 9 May 1917 when he was wounded. He was repatriated on medical grounds in July 1917.JSS Pilot's Flying Log Book #1. Original records held by descendant of John Stevenson Stubbs. Added 30 June 2013. After he recovered from his injuries, he was posted to No 2 Training Depot, Lake Down, near

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

, 19 September 1917 where he worked as an instructor until 24 March 1918. He was promoted to Acting Flight Commander on 9 October 1917. While stationed at Lake Down, he was posted to No. 107 Squadron RAF on 4 December 1917. Stubbs was appointed Captain in the newly formed

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

on 21 April 1918 (the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

was formed on 1 April 1918). Stubbs was posted to

No. 103 Squadron RAF No. 103 Squadron was a Royal Air Force bomber squadron during World War I, World War II and the Cold War, switching to helicopters in the late 1950s until it was disbanded for the last time in 1975. History Formation in World War I No. 103 S ...

in the RAF as an Airco DH.9 pilot on the same date that he was appointed Captain on 21 April 1918. He left Lake Down for active service in France on 9 May 1918. He scored his first aerial victory–a highly unusual one– on 20 May 1918; despite flying a bomber, he and his observer destroyed an enemy

observation balloon An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War ...

over

Seclin Seclin () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. Population Notable residents * Andre Ayew, Ghana national football team footballer *Victor Mollet, architect *Jonathan Roussel ...

. On 6 June 1918, Stubbs and his observer, along with two other Royal Air Force air crews, set a German

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII qu ...

fighter aflame and sent another down out of control southwest of

Ham, Surrey Ham is a suburban district in Richmond, south-west London. It has meadows adjoining the River Thames where the Thames Path National Trail also runs. Most of Ham is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, chiefly, within the ward of ...

. On 4 July, Stubbs and his observer drove a Pfalz D.III fighter down out of control. On the 31st, with John Bernard Russell manning the observer's guns, Stubbs was credited with driving down two more enemy planes out of control. On 25 August, Stubbs and Russell repeated the feat of destroying one Fokker D.VII and driving another down out of combat. Five days later, Stubbs drove down one more Fokker D.VII. He would go on to destroy two more Fokker D.VIIs, on 6 September and 30 October 1918. Stubbs had succeeded in becoming the ranking ace on the lightly regarded Airco DH.9 bomber. On 2 November 1918, Stubbs was awarded the Air Force Cross. On that same day, his Distinguished Flying Cross was gazetted:

Post World War I

On 24 October 1919, Stubbs was granted a short service commission as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. On 13 January 1920, he transferred to the RAF's unemployed list, which was tantamount to discharge. On 15 April 1921, he was restored to the active list for temporary duty. On 4 June 1921, he returned to the unemployed list after completion of temporary duty. On 29 May 1923, he was granted probationary commission as a Class A Flying Officer in the RAF Reserves. On 19 June 1924, he transferred from Class A of the reserves to Class C. Nothing more is known of John Stevenson Stubbs after that.

Endnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stubbs, John Stevenson British World War I flying aces Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) 1894 births 1924 deaths Military personnel from Liverpool