Lieutenant Basil Deacon Hobbs
Individual attestation record images are not available for this person.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
MILITARY INFORMATION
- Lieutenant (Royal Navy).
- Major (Air Force).
Distinguished Service Order
Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross First Bar
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Hobbs moved to Canada at a young age. In 1915 he went to take flight training at the Wright Flying School in Dayton, Ohio. In 1915 Hobbs Joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a Flight Lieutenant. During the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (1917) and the Distinguished Service Order later that same year. While flying a Curtiss H-12, Hobbs was one of the few Canadian pilots to score a victory over a German Zeppelin.
In 1920 Basil Joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, he resigned his commision in 1927 holding the rank of Major. During this time he was employed by the Canadian Air Board as a "certificate examiner". At Canada's entry into the Second World War, Basil was recommisioned as a Group Captain in the RCAF. Stationed in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, he was employed in anti-submarine operations and training.
Vancouver Daily Sun - 29 December 1917:
Flight-Lieut. Basil Hobbs, who was well known in Vancouver before the war, has been awarded a bar to the Distinguished Service Cross for conspicuous services in action with the enemy's submarines. He was for five years a member of the Royal North West Mounted Police, and at the outbreak of the war joined the R.N.A.S.