He was desperately keen about the war, which he saw wholly from the viewpoint of the air.

Arras to him was over before the infantry crossed the top, and the tough bit of the Somme was October, not September.

He calculated that the big air-fighting had not come along yet, and all he hoped for was to be allowed out to France to have his share in it.

Like all good airmen, too, he was very modest about himself.

'I've done a bit of steeple-chasin' and huntin' and I've good hands for a horse, so I can handle a bus fairly well.