Sergeant Mechanic Edwin Edward Hunnisett was the observer in a two seater DeHavilland biplane, piloted by Clifford James Moir, when it was shot down by Hans Goerth, a famous German pilot, over Mariakerker in Belgium on 30th June 1918. He is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, Fauberg d’Amiens, Pas de Calais, France.This is a memorial for those with no known grave.
How did a 21 year old provisions assistant from Newhaven, Sussex come to be a founder member of the Royal Air Force ?
Services Record
Edwin joined the Royal Navy in 1916 and seems to have immediately joined the Royal Naval Air Service, training at their landbase HMS President. Edwin belonged to the 17th Squadron, which served in France. He also spent some time at their Eastchurch base; this was a flying club on the Isle of Sheppey given to the RNAS in 1910 and by mid 1917 it opened as a Naval Seaplane Training School.
During the Great War, the Royal Navy was growing its own air arm,originally for reconnaissance and then later for bombing. This was in addition to the Royal Flying Corps, which was attached to the army. On 01 April 1918, both were amalgamated into the brand new Royal Air Force, and Edwin’s 17th Squadron became the 217 Squadron. He was based in Dunkirk at the time of the transfer.
On the 30th June 2018, Edwin and Clifford Moir (a Canadian member of the RAF), flew on a mission in Belgium. Unfortunately they encountered Hans Goerth, and became the first of his seven recorded kills, thereby making themselves a place in the record books.
Family background
According to his Naval record Edwin Edward was born on 20 October 1895 in Newhaven, Sussex to Benjamin and Harriett (nee Daniels). However he was registered and baptised in 1896 as Edmund Edwin, his baptism at St Michael’s church in Newhaven was on 15 Nov 1896, so it appears that the Navy was a year out as all the other records tally.
His father, Benjamin, was a labourer, originally from Westham, Sussex and worked as a stevedore on the quay at Newhaven and then by 1911 on the railway. He and Harriet had seven children living in 1911. They had married in the Eastbourne district (Westham is in this district) between Sept- Dec 1891 and their first child, also Benjamin, was baptised on 13 December 1891 in Newhaven. Edmund/Edwin was still living at home in 1911.
He put his mother as his next of kin and his father received his war gratuity in 1919.
Brother Benjamin
Edmund’s older brother Benjamin, born 1891, was living at home in 1911, his occupation listed as ship’s steward.
Records for the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, show he then worked for them as a ganger. He was a Reservist and left for war on 09 October 1914. By the time he was demobilised in February 1919 and returned to the railway, he had married and started a family.
He married Elizabeth May Tubbs in the Newhaven district between January & March 1916. Both their sons unfortunately died in their first year, Benjamin S in 1918, and Edmund W in 1924. Their daughter May Dorine, born in 1917, married William J Gerard in 1934 and were both found in the 1939 Register, with a son William J, living in Newhaven.
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Edmund’s ancestor
I have traced Edmund’s family back to Peter Hennesit, born about 1550 in Sussex.
This blog is part of the Hunnisett and Honeysett Family Study
Sources
The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England; Kew, Surrey, England; Air Ministry: Air Member for Personnel and Predecessors: Airmen’s Records; Series Number: AIR 79
www.findagrave.com
Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services. ADM 188, 362 and 363. The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England.
The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Collection: London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company: Records; Class: RAIL414; Piece: 791
www.freeBMD.co.uk
Ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk for censuses and military records
Sussex Family History Group
www.canadiangreatwarproject.com
www.gro.gov.uk