Gerald Loxley

Major Gerald Herbert Loxley (1885–1950) was a decorated British aviator of the First World War deployed in military intelligence,[1] before serving with the United Nations.[2]

Gerald Loxley
Born(1885-01-31)31 January 1885
Fairford, Gloucestershire
Died(1950-09-29)29 September 1950
Hereford, Herefordshire
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branchRNAS; Royal Air Force
Years of service1915-1920
RankMajor
Battles/warsWorld War I
AwardsAir Force Cross
Légion d'honneur
Corona d'Italia
Other workUnited Nations
Loxley arms

Biography

Born on 31 January 1885 at Fairford, Gloucestershire, a vicar's son,[3] he was named after his godfather Sir Herbert Brewer. Loxley attended Summer Fields School and Malvern College before going up to read Jurisprudence at Oriel College, Oxford.[4]

His World War I service in the Royal Naval Air Service saw action as an air pilot before he was appointed to a distinguished position in aerial reconnaissance,[5] advising the director-general of aircraft production (Ministry of Munitions) in Paris.[6] He was confirmed in the rank of Major upon the creation of the Royal Air Force in 1919.

Later in life he worked as a diplomat at the United Nations Organization in Geneva.[7]

Family
Capt Loxley's Little Dog (1923)

The 5th child and 4th son of the Revd Canon Arthur Smart Loxley, son of John Loxley of Norcott Court, near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire,[8] he was the only one of the Loxley brothers to survive the Great War.[9] In 1930 he married Alice Blundell Booth (died 1955, leaving no children), a descendant of that old Cheshire family.[10] Through Julia Maria Heath[11] a collateral ancestor of his was the poet Lord Byron; and, with Cornish ancestry, his family was also closely related to Lord Dover and the Duncombes.[12]

After suffering a severe stroke, Loxley died on 29 September 1950 at St Mary's Hospital, Burghill, near Hereford.

Honours and awards

Loxley received the Air Force Cross[13] and was invested as a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by Marshal Foch in 1919,[14] having been appointed Ufficiale of the Corona d'Italia in 1916.[2] He received many other military honours as well as being admitted as a Freeman of the City of London "for War Services".[15]

See also
Norcott Court, Hertfordshire
(Loxley family ancestral home)
  • Baron Bingham of Cornhill

References
  1. "www.thegazette.co.uk" (PDF).
  2. "Oxford university roll of service". Oxford, Clarendon press. 9 October 1920 – via Internet Archive.
  3. "CCEd | Clergy of the Church of England Database".
  4. "Oxford university roll of service". Oxford, Clarendon press. 9 October 1920 – via Internet Archive.
  5. "(996) - Navy lists > Quarterly > 1918 > April - British Military lists - National Library of Scotland". digital.nls.uk.
  6. "King's Collections : Archive Catalogues : STERN, Lt Col Sir Albert Gerald (1878-1966) : 1: Papers relating to Stern's service during World War One, 1915-1918". kingscollections.org.
  7. "United Nations Treaty Collection". treaties.un.org.
  8. "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com.
  9. "www.fairfordhistory.org.uk". Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  10. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, qv. BOOTH, Bt
  11. Byron: Letters and Journals, vol. 1, 1973,p.165; Lord Byron to the Hon. Mrs Augusta Leigh, 26 April 1808
  12. "Parishes: Northchurch or Berkhampstead St Mary | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  13. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage (www.burkespeerage.com), qv. BOOTH, Bt: "2m Alice Blundell BOOTH, born 20 September 1908, married 10 September 1930 Major Gerald Herbert LOXLEY, AFC, Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre avec Palmes, late RAF (died without issue 29 September 1950), son of Rev Arthur Smart LOXLEY, Vicar of Fairford, Gloucestershire (see BYRON, B), and great-uncle of Elizabeth Patricia Loxley, Baroness Bingham of Cornhill (see BINGHAM OF CORNHILL, LP), and died without issue 29 August 1955".
  14. "Droits et devoirs du décoré | La grande chancellerie". www.legiondhonneur.fr.
  15. "Freemen Of London Revealed In New Online Archive". Londonist. 30 November 2011.
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