CAPT. CECIL SCOTT JAMES GRIFFIN, 1ST BATTN. GORDON HIGHLANDERS, FLYING OFFICER, R.F.C. DIED OCTOBER 11TH, 1917, AS THE RESULT OF A FLYING ACCIDENT, ON SEPTEMBER 16TH. AGED 22. At the School 1909—11 (Ferox Hall), Capt. C. S. J. Griffin was the only son of Lieut.-Colonel Cecil Pender Griffith Griffin, D.S.O., retired, Indian Army, and of Mrs. Griffin, of Berridon Hall, Bradworthy, Devon, and his family have served their country in the Navy and Army for five generations without a break. His father, who was in the 1st Bengal Lancers, saw active service in the Tirah campaign in 1897—98, receiving the medal with two clasps, and in China in 1900, where he took part in the relief of Pekin and the actions of Pietsang and Yangstun, being mentioned in despatches and receiving the medal with clasp and the D.S.O. He also held the Royal Humane Society's Silver Medal. He was attached to the Suffolk Yeomanry with rank of Major from August, 1915, but, finding that they would not be sent abroad, he applied for service in France, and was sent out in January, 1917, as an Inspector of Artillery Horses. In this capacity he was responsible for the horse-lines of one or two Brigades in the Battle Areas. He had a slight stroke on the day of his son's death, but went out to France once more. He was invalided home in April, 1918, after six months' further service at the Front, and died in 1922. Capt. Griffin married on February 20th, 1917, Sybil, only daughter of the late Samuel Oxenham and of Mrs. Glynn and stepdaughter of Lieut.-Colonel T. G. P. Glynn, C.M.G., of The Glenfalls, Cheltenham. Entering the School in September, 1909, he left at Easter, 1911, and had been in the O.T.C. Having received a commission in the Special Reserve of the Gordon Highlanders, dated March 21st, 1914, he went out to the 1st Battn. with reinforcements on September 1st, 1914, and was definitely transferred to this Battalion as from October 2nd, 1914. He came safely through the Battle of the Marne, commencing on September 7th, and the Battle of the Aisne, which commenced on the 12th, but in the course of the Ypres-Armentieres battle, which commenced on October 11th, he was wounded on October 24th, 1914, in a hand-to-hand encounter with a German officer, when the Germans charged the Gordons' trenches near the village of Aubers, not far from Lille. Whilst they were struggling on the ground his revolver jammed, and the German succeeded in getting his arm free and shooting him in the head. The wound was not very serious, but resulted in his disablement and capture at the moment, and his captor, who spoke English and French, showed remarkable kindness and gave him every assistance. Capt. Griffin managed shortly afterwards to escape together with a wounded Sergeant of his Regiment by crawling away and hiding in a privet hedge. He was invalided to England, but rejoined his Regiment at the Front in January, 1915, and continued to serve with it till he was invalided with enteric in July. Early in 1916 he became attached to the R.F.C., and after a probationary period was gazetted a Flying Officer (August 30th, 1916), and joined the 45th Squadron at the Front, with which he was actively employed against the enemy till January, 1917, when he returned to England. After that he had been employed mostly in taking new machines to France and elsewhere, and it was during one of these flights that he met with his fatal accident on September 16th. He had barely left the ground when his engine misfired badly. At a height of some 150 feet he tried to turn, but the wind caught the tail of the machine, causing it to " crash," and he received injuries from which he died in Croydon War Hospital on October 11th, 1917. He was declared at the inquest to have been a good, safe pilot, and he was held in the greatest esteem by his brother officers, one of whom wrote :— " He was deservedly popular wherever he went, and, speaking for myself, I can say nobody could have wished for a better friend." A senior officer of the Air Board wrote :— " He was a fine Pilot and good officer and always cheery, liked by every one." Another officer's letter contained the following:— " His brother officers have been deprived of a good fellow, a good sportsman, and one who, whether he liked it or not, did his duty to the last."