With a Smile and a Wave

During the late summer of 1915, the face and story of Aidan Liddell filled many newspaper columns. Already decorated as an infantry officer serving with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, Liddell had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and it was in the air that his skill and fortitude attracted national acclaim. Badly wounded in the thigh while flying deep over enemy occupied Belgium, Aidan had lost consciousness as his two-seater RE5 was raked by enemy fire and plunged out of control towards the ground. Despite terrible injuries and extensive damage to his airplane, he recovered from an inverted dive and flew on for a further half an hour to the safety of the Allied lines, thus saving his observer and the valuable aircraft. For this action he was awarded the VC, but never lived to receive Britain's highest military award; Aidan died from his wounds one month after the action.

This book tells the story of his life and brings a welcome insight into the lifestyle of the Edwardian era. From his birth in Lancashire to a wealthy mine-owning family, it follows his education at Stonyhurst College and then into University life. His joining of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in peacetime and then his active service through the trenches of the first years of World War I are based on his many letters home and truly reflect the misery of the infantryman's life and finally the experience of combat flying in its first hazardous years.