John Hood was born on 8th December 1894 at 105 Buccleuch Street, Glasgow. Today, the National Trust for Scotland’s property The Tenement House is just a few doors away.
His father, Archibald, has been described as a teacher, and this may have been true early in his career but at the time of John’s birth he described himself as a lecturer in education and was working at the Free Church Training College known to Glaswegians today by its towers on Park Circus:
This was a predecessor (with other organisations) of Jordanhill College.
His mother was Mary Mitchell and his parents had been married in 1893.
By 1901 the family was living at 5 Kelvingrove Terrace, Glasgow. The family employed Christina Dewar, a 19-year old from Inellan (south of Dunoon), as a servant.
This adds the interesting detail that Archibald had been born in Kandy in what was then called Ceylon, now Sri Lanaka, and was a British citizen through his parents.
Ten years later, John had a younger sister, Esther (born 1903). They were living at Sherwood on Glenburn Road in Bearsden (I think this is 9 Glenburn Road). Archibald’s job was now “Master of Methods” at the Training College for Teachers.
John thus grew up two doors away from Donald Carruthers (at 15 Glenburn Road), who is also named on the Bearsden War Memorial (link).
John went to Glasgow Academy, where he was a distinguished athlete and school captain in 1913 for his abilities as a student, cricketer and rugby footballer. In 1913 he started a Science degree at Glasgow University and he was also in the Officer Training Corps.
When war broke out, he became an officer in the 8th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and served in France in autumn and winter 1915; the front seems to have been relatively static at this time but no less dangerous for all that.
Following a knee injury he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the RAF. His flying training lasted from 15th March to July 1917 and he was posted to number 57 Squadron in France.
Acknowledging Wikipedia as a source, also a page dedicated to 57 Squadron source.
After training on a new type of plane, the DH4 (photo above), the squadron commenced operations in June of that year, moving to Droglandt on 12 June and Boisdinghem on 27 June in support of the offensive at Ypres, also known as Passchendaele. This included bombing railway junctions and German airfields during the Battle of Langemarck in August 1917 and reconnaissance duties during the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge in September. (For excellent photos of Boisdinghem as it is today see here.)
German fighters caused many casualties and at one stage all aircrew assigned to the squadron had been killed or wounded; only new crews kept the squadron in the frontline.
His first flight in France was on 23rd July 1917, and on 7th August he first flew with a Dubliner, James McDaniel, as his observer. They carried out a reconnaissance mission on 12th August but 15th August was their first bombing mission
John Hood’s logbook is available to see online (source).
Quoting from that site:
“On August 16, 1917, Hood noted that on a bombing run during which he reached an altitude of 13,000′ he had a “Scrap with Gotha”, and wrote succinctly, “Hun shot down.” The same day, he recorded, “Scrap with 4 Albatros scouts. 2 driven down.”
His last entry, on August 18, registered that he went up in De Havilland 7510 for 30 minutes, reaching an altitude of only 5,000′; the intent was to bomb Courtrai (aka Kortrijk, Belgium), but his notes read, “unsuccessful owing to clouds.”
RAF records indicate that he went up again later, with his observer 2nd Lieutenant McDaniel (James Robertson MacDaniel, per official RFC records), and was “Last seen in nosedive at 14,000 ft.” This was apparently near Roulers/Roeselare.”
The Milngavie and Bearsden Herald contained an account on 31st August 1917, presumably based on a letter (or letters) his parents had received from members of the squadron. These said that he was attacked by an enemy plane, both observers had fired at the other plane and both pilots seem to have been killed or wounded as both planes went out of control.
It seems John and James McDaniel (who was from Dublin) were originally buried by the Germans at Ardoye Communal Cemetery. This is the CWGC form for them:
Boisdingheim to Ardooi is about 90km:
They were re-buried at the Harlebeke New British Cemetery in October 1923:
On John’s headstone his father selected the words, “Ubique / quo fas et gloria ducunt” (Everywhere / where fate and glory lead, some sources translate ‘fas’ as ‘right’) – this is obscured by grass in the photo below:
