For Valour: Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson
Location: 16 August 1940, over Hampshire, England
Who: Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson (39329) VC DFC
Royal Air Force, 29 April 1917 – 2 May 1945
The Victoria Cross is the highest military award and is awarded ‘For valour in the face of the enemy’. The requirement to be in actual combat severely restricts the possibility of gaining such an award in the United Kingdom and so, of all the 1,358 VCs awarded to date, only 6 have been won within the limits of the UK and adjoining territorial waters. Of these, three have been won by aviators: Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson, Royal Flying Corps, in September 1916 for the first destruction of a Zeppelin over the UK [outside the scope of this series which is solely about RAF winners]; Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson RAF; and Lieutenant Commander (A) Eugene Esmonde VC DSO, Royal Naval Air Service, over the English Channel, attacking the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in a Fairey Swordfish. Nicolson also has the distinction of having been the only member of Fighter Command ever to have been thus decorated.
In August 1940, Nicolson was a Flight Commander in 249 Squadron, equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. This was the height of the Battle of Britain and 249 Squadron was despatched to Boscombe Down – the home of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment – to bolster the air defences of central southern and south-western England against Luftwaffe raiders. On Friday 16 August, Nicolson and two other Hurricanes were ordered to patrol the Poole-Ringwood-Southampton area. He was flying Hurricane serial P3576 coded GN-A. This was his first combat patrol.
London Gazette Friday 15 November 1940:
‘The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery : — Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON (39329) — No. 249 Squadron. During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August, 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson’s aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs. Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.’
Hawker Hurricane
After Nicolson had recovered from his burns, he held a number of flying and administrative/command posts and in August 1943 was appointed to command No. 27 Squadron, flying Bristol Beaufighters in Burma. Another desk posting followed, to RAF Burma Headquarters in April 1945. But he still wanted to fly and, on 2 May, he was an ‘observer’ on Consolidated Liberator KH 210 of 355 Squadron, based at Salani, Bengal. But when out over the Indian Ocean, an engine caught fire and the aircraft crashed into the sea. Sixteen hours later, a Catalina found two survivors in a dinghy: Wing Commander Nicolson was not amongst them, his body lost to the sea. He is remembered on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Kranji Memorial, Singapore.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at RAF Museum Midlands (Cosford).
Credits:
Citation: London Gazette Friday 15 November 1940
Additional biographical details: For Valour: The Air VCs Chaz Bowyer, Grub Street Publishing.
My Uncle, The Battle of Britain Victoria Cross – Crowdcast
Photos
Wing Commander Nicolson: RAF Museum (P018589)
VC medal bar: RAF Museum (83/D/1062)
Hurricane: RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Singapore (Kranji) Memorial: Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.cwgc.org)
Individual panel: The War Graves Photographic Project (www.twgpp.org)
