SECOND LIEUTENANT FREDERICK SEYMOUR ANDREWS
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
29TH APRIL 1917 AGE 28
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Shot down on 16 April whilst artillery spotting over the German lines, Lieutenant Alphonso Pascoe and his observer Frederick Seymour Andrews became the German flying ace Baron von Richtofen's 45th 'kill'. According to Richtofen, the British BE2e was flying at an altitude of 800 metres when he approached unseen from behind and made his attack. Pascoe momentarily lost control of the plane, managed to steady it and then lost control again. The plane plummeted the last 100 metres to the ground. Both Pascoe and Andrews were badly wounded, Pascoe survived, Andrews died of his wounds thirteen days later.
A South African from Harrismith in the Orange Free State, Andrews travelled to Britain to enlist in the Royal Flying Corps. Gazetted Second Lieutenant in March 1917 he was posted to 13 Squadron and shot down the following month. Superior tactics and aeroplanes were giving the German Luftstreitkrafte, the German Imperial Flying Service, huge superiority at this time, so much so that to the RFC April 1917 became known as Bloody April, their losses being approximately three times those of the Germans.
Andrews' inscription, "Duty dared and won" sounds like a quotation but doesn't appear to be. It has echoes of "Who dares wins", but is too early to be associated with the SAS's motto. The closest is a popular memorial inscription much used in the war but without any accredited author:
For his heart's perennial gladness,
For the years scarce touched by sadness,
For the duty dared and done,
For the Crown of Life well won,
We thank Thee, Lord.