Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod
Individual attestation record images are not available for this person.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
MILITARY INFORMATION
Lieutenant (Air Force).
Victoria Cross
Description: Whilst flying with his observer (Lt. A. W. Hammond, M.C.), attacking hostile formations by bombs and machine-gun fire, he was assailed at a height of 5,000 feet by eight enemy triplanes, which dived at him from all directions, firing from their front guns. By skilful manoeuvring he enabled his observer to fire bursts at each machine in turn, shooting three of them down out of control. By this time Lt. McLeod had received five wounds, and whilst continuing the engagement a bullet penetrated his petrol tank and set the machine on fire. He then climbed out on to the left bottom plane, controlling his machine from the side of the fuselage, and by side-slipping steeply kept the flames to one side, thus enabling the observer to continue firing until the ground was reached. The observer had been wounded six times when the machine crashed in "No Man's Land," and 2nd Lt. McLeod, not withstanding his own wounds, dragged him away from the burning wreckage at great personal risk from heavy machine-gun fire from the enemy's lines. This very gallant pilot was again wounded by a bomb whilst engaged in this act of rescue, but he persevered until he had placed Lt. Hammond in comparative safety, before falling himself from exhaustion and loss of blood.
Date of award: 1918-05-01
Source: London Gazette
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Son of Dr. A. N. MacLeod and Margaret Lillian MacLeod, of 491 River Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lived in Stonewall, Manitoba. The Canadian Daily Record of December 6, 1918 notes that the London Gazette has officially announced that Lieutenant A. A. McLeod had died of wounds. In the December 17, 1918 issue, it stated that he had died of influenza.
Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod, a 19 year old Canadian with the RFC/RAF won a VC in an incredible action on Mar. 27, 1918, saving the life of his observer and his own, even though he was wounded 5 times and his plane was on fire. He took months to recover from his wounds, went home to Canada, and died of influenza in December of that year.