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Cecil Robert George Abrahams was born on 17th September 1895 in Plumstead, Kent - the second of Alf and Eveline Abrahams' two children, and their only son. He was a small and delicate baby, born prematurely, and not expected to live. Eveline, determined not to lose her son, wrapped the tiny baby in cotton wool and fed him milk one drop at a time, using a fountain pen filler. Against all the odds, Cecil survived, and was especially precious to his parents as a result. As he grew up, in most ways he was an ordinary lad who did all the things that lads do - he obviously enjoyed football, and he probably attended the youth club of Enon Baptist Chapel in Woolwich, where Alf and Eveline at that time were members. He trained to become an electrical engineer, eventually being elected to membership of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. At the age of 15, three years before the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Territorial Army (London Electrical Engineers).
It was also becoming apparent that Cecil was developing a considerable talent for painting in watercolours. A number of his paintings still survive, kept by different family members, and some of these show real promise. The London Electrical Engineers were responsible for manning the searchlights and anti-aircraft batteries of the Thames and Medway defences during the war, and once mobilised on 4th August 1914, Cecil had the opportunity to visit and paint places which he might otherwise never have seen. He took his paintbox everywhere he went, producing his best work during 1917 when he was billeted in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. His carefully observed scenes give a picture of a rural way of life difficult to imagine at 90 years' distance.
At around the same time, the Abrahams household in London was augmented by the arrival of the three Powell sisters from Potton in Bedfordshire. Isa, Hylda and Audrey Powell were the daughters of the Potton schoolmaster who had decided to go to London together, whether to help with the war effort or to seek their fortunes in a more conventional sense we shall never know. At some stage, Eveline must have met the sisters and, concerned that the three girls were living away from their parents in London, invited them to share her home. Cecil by this time was away most of the time, and Una must have welcomed the company. However, during his periods home on leave, the presence of three lively and attractive young women in the house led to a somewhat inevitable conclusion, and Cecil fell in love with Hylda, the middle one of the three girls.
Cecil served the first three years of the war mainly in Essex and Kent, part of the time at Cliffe Fort on the South bank of the Thames. Nowadays Cliffe is semi-derelict and inaccessible, but a restoration project at Coalhouse Fort - Cliffe's opposite number on the Essex bank - should eventually give a good impression of what life must have been like there. Cecil seems to have been content enough, but it must eventually have become a mind-numbingly boring posting for an intelligent young man. The AA batteries were less than adequate, and the contemporary press compared their effect unfavourably with that of the airmen of the Royal Flying Corps. When Cecil applied for a commission in late 1917 or early 1918, maybe that was the reason for his abandoning the Terriers and instead applying to join the RFC. Aerial warfare was still in its infancy, and the pilots must have felt like true pioneers of the future; he may also have felt that this might be his best chance of seeing some real action.
Cecil and Hylda were married in January 1918, and had scarcely had time to finish their honeymoon when on 24th February Cecil received a temporary commission to 2nd Lieutenant in the RFC and was drafted to Cramlington Aerodrome in Northumberland to train as a pilot. The Royal Air Force was formed in April 1918 from the combination of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, and Cecil must have been one of the very first trainees in the new Service. The young couple moved together to the North-East, where Hylda seems to have lodged at Cramlington Vicarage during Cecil's training. The early summer of 1918 seems to have been a very happy time for them. Cecil obviously loved the RAF life, he was popular among his colleagues, and passionate about all aspects of aviation, never missing an opportunity to photograph any and every aircraft which flew into Cramlington. He was optimistic about his prospects, writing to his parents "We have the best of leaders, and it is the great spirit of comradeship that will pull us through." Meanwhile Hylda was enjoying the country atmosphere which must have been very like her old home in Potton.
Cecil and his colleagues trained as pilots on the De Havilland DH6, a purpose-built trainer, and the Royal Aircraft Factory RE8 - a machine which had become the workhorse of the RFC from mid-1917 and of which over 4000 were built. The trainees had frighteningly little time to learn the considerable skills needed to fly these fragile and often unstable machines. Cecil himself crashed at least one aircraft during his training, something which seems to have been only too commonplace but which did nothing to dampen the trainees' enthusiasm. Like all young men, they worked hard, played hard and thoroughly enjoyed themselves - compared with the Thames and Medway defences, it must have seemed a real new beginning. There seems to have been little time to paint, but Cecil took his paintbox with him every time he flew - a mascot that really meant something to him.
Once the basic training was complete, Cecil commenced training as a bomber pilot. The De Havilland DH9 was a very different machine from the RE8. A two-man bombing plane, this aircraft was being widely used against the German spring offensive but could barely lift a bomb load to 14,000 feet, making it a sitting duck for the German fighters. The engine was hopelessly unreliable and many were lost due to engine failure on the wrong side of the lines. When used against strategic targets the aircraft was almost ineffectual due to not being able to fly far enough without breaking down, being decimated by swarms of German fighters, or simply not dropping enough weight of bombs to do any significant damage. However, a massive build programme was already underway and eventually about 5,700 were produced.
Cecil's commission was confirmed on 27th July 1918, and he was drafted to France sometime during August. It seems likely that he went first into a "pilot pool" while awaiting a vacancy in a DH9 squadron. Eventually he was transferred to 99 squadron, based at Azelot Aerodrome, and must have spent the first few weeks learning the lie of the land. Certainly he flew no bombing missions during August or the first part of September, though he probably carried out training flights. By this time he must have known that the odds were against him once he did go into action - the DH9's limitations were all too obvious and he knew that his inexperience would tell against him - but the day inevitably came. It was in this spirit that he wrote home on 24th September. Whilst reassuring his loved ones that he could be relied upon to do his duty, he wrote the following: "We can only trust that I may be brought through safely, and in that trust we can feel that whatever happens God will take care of us."
On 25th September, he took off in DH9 C6272 along with his observer, Christopher Harold Sharp, on a 13-plane raid led by Lt K D Marshall which was intended to attack the aerodrome at Buhl. However, Marshall's DH9 developed engine trouble, and Cecil, along with four other inexperienced pilots, mistook his signal and followed him back to Azelot. The following day, six weeks before the Armistice and nine days after his 23rd birthday, he piloted the DH9 on another mission, and this time he did not return. Two formations of five aircraft were sent to bomb railways at Thionville and Metz-Sablon. Three of the aircraft had to turn back after various mechanical problems, and the depleted formations were harried by enemy fighters. Of the seven remaining aircraft, only one returned to Azelot, and eight of the fourteen men who had crossed the enemy lines were killed in action, incuding Cecil and Christopher Sharp. It was Cecil's first venture across enemy lines, and 99 Squadron's last raid of the war.
It was another long and agonising year before his parents, his sister Una and his wife Hylda received confirmation that he was dead. His medals and a few mementoes were returned to his wife, but his lucky paintbox went with him to his death. He is buried, along with Christopher Sharp and two other members of that ill-fated expedition, in the Chambières French National Cemetery, Metz, not far from where the DH9s came down. I hope the paintbox is buried with him - he would certainly have wanted it that way.
He would also have wanted his young widow to be happy. During and after the dreadful year of waiting until his death was confirmed, Hylda lived with Cecil's parents in Holloway, and all concerned gave each other mutual support and comfort. Una had married in 1916, and Hylda became like a second daughter to Alf and Eveline. They felt nothing but joy for Hylda when in 1921 she remarried, to Frank Banes, a childhood friend from Potton.
Frank and Hylda moved back to Potton, where they became the favourite aunt and uncle of little Eveline and Laurie Horton, Una's children. They never knew their real uncle, but with Frank and Hylda they too grew to love the Bedfordshire countryside as Cecil had, and twenty years later, at the start of another war, Frank and Hylda's home in Potton provided welcome respite from the London Blitz. Both Eveline and Laurie were married in Potton, and Eveline also inherited her uncle's gift for painting which she used throughout her life. It's a fitting memorial to a young man who died before his time but while doing something he loved, and who would undoubtedly have compared his lot favourably with that of his Army comrades, suffering the horrors of the Western Front.
Photo Album(Click to enlarge) |
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Alf and Eveline, 1911 |
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Cecil, about 1907 |
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Cecil's sister Una |
Cecil about 1916 |
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The Powell sisters |
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"Terriers" at Cliffe, 1917 |
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RAF, 1918 |
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Newly-weds, March 1918 |
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RAF Trainees |
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Ready to fly |
Hylda in Northumberland |
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Cecil's crashed RE8 |
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Machine gunnery class, Cramlington |
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The infamous DH9 |
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Frank with Hylda and friend |
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Happier times for Hylda with her adopted family |
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© V Elleson 2005