Captain Robert Kirby Kirkman MC (25 June 1891 – 9 May 1938) was an English World War I flying ace credited with eight aerial victories.
[2] Kirkman served in the Honourable Artillery Company, Territorial Force, as a private before being commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant in the Leicestershire Regiment on 12 December 1915.
20 Squadron, flying the Bristol F.2b fighter, between 11 September 1917 and 23 March 1918 Kirkman was credited with eight aerial victories, all against Albatros D.Vs, with five driven down out of control, and three set on fire and destroyed.
His citation read: However, on 27 March he and his observer, Captain John Herbert Hedley, were shot down by Karl Gallwitz of Jasta Boelcke near Foucaucourt and captured.
[1] He remained a prisoner of war until after the armistice of 11 November 1918, and was transferred to RAF's unemployed list on 28 February 1919.