John Inglis Gilmour

John Inglis Gilmour, DSO, MC & Two Bars (28 June 1896 – 24 February 1928) was a British flying ace of the First World War.

Gilmour began his military career in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, but was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps.

Gaining his wings on 17 March 1916, Gilmour was assigned to pilot the Martinsyde Elephant on the Western Front.

In December 1914, aged 18, Gilmour left school and joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment with the rank of second lieutenant.

A single seater, it was too big, slow, and manoeuvrable to be a successful fighter, and without a rear gunner, too defenceless to survive well in a ground attack or bombing role.

It was equipped with a Lewis machine gun mounted on the upper wing firing over the propeller, and a second one on the fuselage pointed toward the rear.

[3] Nevertheless, before the Elephants were withdrawn from service, Gilmour scored three victories flying one, though his primary duty was bombing.

[4] After a fourteen-month gap in his aerial victory list, he scored flying a Sopwith Camel, on 18 December 1917.

[1][5] On 1 July 1918, Gilmour capped his career with a performance that earned him a Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

On that evening, within 45 minutes, he burned two Fokker D.VIIs and knocked another down out of control, set an Albatros D.V afire, and drove a Pfalz D.III out of the air.

[6] On 3 August 1918, Gilmour was awarded the DSO; on 16 September, he was gazetted for his second Bar to his MC.