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Showing posts from November, 2014

Felix Kerber

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In this centenary year of the start of the First World War, one of my ancestors fought on the side of the Austrians.  My great great uncle Felix Kohn/Kerber was born on the 5th April 1894 to Rudolf Kohn and Gisela Löwenstein. At the present time, I do not know when he joined the Army, but by the time he died on the 9th December 1917, he had been awarded the Silver Bravery Medal and the Karl-Truppen Cross.

Vincent Waterfall

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Vincent Waterfall was the first airman, along with his co pilot to be killed in the First World War. He was born on the 25th May 1892 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire to Walter Frank Waterfall and Mary Figgins and was the youngest of 10 children.  By the time of the 1911 census, Vincent and his family had moved to Burgess Hill in West Sussex. In January 1912, he was gazetted to the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment.  In 1913 Vincent trained as a pilot The Vickers School, Broadlands and in July 1914 he joined the Royal Flyin g Corps becoming a Flying Officer in August 1914. On the morning of the 22nd August 1914, Vincent Waterfa1l and his co-pilot were flying over Labliau near Enghien in Belgium and were shot down by German Platoons and were killed.  Vincent is  bur ied at  Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension in Belgium.