CAPTAIN BASIL HALLAM RADFORD
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
20TH AUGUST 1916 AGE 28
BURIED: COUIN BRITISH CEMETERY, FRANCE
Job's words, [Job 1 21-2] after God has tested him to the limit by taking away his wealth, his possessions and finally his children, provide a sober contrast to what the public knew of Captain Basil Radford. To them he was Basil Hallam, who in 1914-5 played the most popular character on the English stage, Gilbert the Filbert the Knut with a K, alongside the sensational American revue star, Elsie Janis. Hallam was a public idol, a superstar, more than fifty years after his death Cecil Beaton remembered him as having "an attraction that was devastating to all ages and sexes". From her autobiography, 'So Far So Good', Elsie Janis obviously agreed with Beaton!
What was a Filbert? He was the early twentieth century equivalent of a fop or dandy, beautifully described by Owen Rutter in his
'Song of Tiadatha".
He was what we call a Filbert,
Youth of two and twenty summers.
You could see him any morning
In July of 1914,
Strolling slowly down St James's
From his comfy flat in Duke Street.
Little recked he of in those days,
Save of socks and ties and hairwash,
Girls and motorcars and suppers;
Little suppers at the Carlton,
Little teas at Rumpelmayer's,
Little weekend down at Skindles;
The Passing Show played to packed houses through 1914 and into 1915 with Hallam still playing Gilbert to great acclaim despite the fact that he was a young man of military service age. However, after the sinking of the Lusitania on 8 May, he couldn't do it any more. Americans in London were outraged and conflicted, could/would/should the US maintain her neutrality? Elsie for one declared that she was about as neutral as "cyanide of potassium". Hallam announced he was leaving the show, Elsie announced she would leave too, describing their last night as making "any opening night I have ever had seem colourless by comparison".
Hallam joined the RFC and served in the Kite Balloon section in the skies over the Somme where, just over a year after enlisting, he was killed falling from his balloon. Despite the fact that hundreds must have seen him fall the facts are disputed. Was the balloon being pulled in when it broke away, did it break loose in a high wind or was it brought down by enemy fire? Were there two men or three on board, was Hallam wearing a parachute which snagged or did he not have one? Gerald Gliddon, writing authoritatively for the Western Front Association, states that the balloon broke free in the wind and that Hallam had no parachute. Balloon crew, unlike pilots, were provided with parachutes, one for each man, the pilot and the observer. But there were three men in the balloon that day, there was a friend with them who had gone for the ride. Hallam gave him his parachute and jumped rather than fall into enemy hands. Raymond Asquith, who was among those who watched it happen, described it as a frightening death, even to look at".