January 28th, 1892
Squadron Leader David Mary Tidmarsh MC (28 January 1892 – 27 November 1944) was an Irish-born flying ace of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, credited with seven aerial victories.
Tidmarsh was born on Circular Road, Limerick, to David Tidmarsh, a merchant originally from Kilkenny, and Elizabeth (Lillie) Murray, who was from Tipperary. A brother of his, John Moriarty Tidmarsh, of the No. 24 Squadron RFC, was accidentally killed in a flying accident at Doncaster on 3 September 1918.
Tidmarsh was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment (Special Reserve) on 23 April 1915. He was soon transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, beginning his flight training at Shoreham on 27 August 1915, and received Royal Aero Club Aviator’s Certificate No. 1833 after soloing a Maurice Farman biplane at the Military School, Ruislip on 7 October. On 13 January 1916 he was appointed a flying officer in the RFC.
Posted to No. 24 Squadron, he was piloting an Airco DH.2 on 2 April 1916 when he scored his—and his squadron’s—first victory, destroying a German Albatros two-seater and killing its crew of Karl Oscar Breibisch-Guthmann and Paul Wein. On 21 April, a dud anti-aircraft shell blew through the nacelle of his plane without harming him. On 25 April, Tidmarsh was flying Airco DH.2 No. 5965, escorting a mission of Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2s, when he dived on an approaching Fokker Eindekker fighter. It fled. He pursued. The German had a 500-yard lead on Tidmarsh, who was not close enough to fire, when the Fokker lost its wings at an altitude of 1,000 feet. A German report would later blame flying wires severed by bullets for breaking up the aircraft. However, Tidmarsh received credit for the victory, his second. He would score once more while with No. 24 Squadron, when he set a two-seater on fire on 20 May 1916, killing Franz Patzig and Georg Loenholdt.
