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| Cpt Basil Hallam Radford |
Captain Basil Hallam Radford, No 1 Army Kite Ballon Section, Royal Flying Corps
Basil was born 3 April 1888 and lived on Cromwell Road, South Kensington. He was at the public school Charterhouse from 1903 to 1907. He became an actor and went on stage as 'Basil Hallam'.
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| Basil Hallam also known as 'Gilbert the Filbert' |
By early 1914 he had established himself as a popular and successful light comedian appearing in various productions before he created the persona 'Gilbert the Filbert' by all accounts, a Berty Woster upper class funk of the kind played later in the century by Hugh Laurie.
He had a steel plate in his foot from an old injury which preented him from joining the army. In his later 20s though and otherwise fit he was the frequent recipient of 'the white feather' which eventually prompted him to join the then Royal Flying Corps where he got himself a position as a balloon observer.
His death in action is described by Rudyard Kipling in The Irish Guards in the Great War, Vol 2 1916 - Salient and the Somme:
On a windy Sunday evening at Couin, in the valley north of Bus-les-Artois, the men saw an observation-balloon, tethered near their bivouacs, break loose while being hauled down. It drifted towards the enemy line. First they watched maps and books being heaved overboard, then a man in a parachute jumping for his life, who landed safely. Soon after, something black, which had been hanging below the basket, detached itself and fell some three thousand feet. We heard later that it was Captain Radford (Basil Hallam). His parachute apparently caught in the rigging and in some way he slipped out of the belt which attached him to it. He fell near Brigade Headquarters. Of those who watched, there was not one that had not seen him at the "Halls" in the immensely remote days of "Gilbert the Filbert, the Colonel of the Nuts."
Captain Hallam is buried at Couin British Cemetery.
Further research by Gerald Gliddon (see article below), suggests that Cpt Radford had taken a third person, an old school friend from Charterhouse, up in the balloon. When faced with tragedy he gave up his parachute.
Two men jumped to safety leaving Radford to jump, or to blow across enemy lines. Expecting to be shot out of the sky he jumped to certain death.
20 August 1916 fell to his death
Readers iterested in Basil Radford should also read the piece by Gerald Gliddon 'Basil Radford or 'Gilbert the Filbert'. You may also like to see what else was going on in 'The Diary of the War', our day by day coverage of the First World War.
And finally, with thanks to Mark Bristow for posting this to The Western Front Facebook Page, is Basil Hallam singing 'Gilbert the Filbert ... the nut with a K'.
REFERENCE
Photograph of Basil Hallam courtesy: © The National Portrait Gallery, London
Extract of obituary from the Times of 24 August 1916 courtesy: The Great War Forum
Lives of the First World War. Charterhouse School. Basil Hallam Radford. (acccessed 20 August 2016)
Research by David Tattersfield, WFA Development Trustee with further notes added by Jonathan Vernon, WFA Digital Content Editor.