Edgar Charles Cramp
Born in Horsham in Sussex on November 10, 1880 Edgar listed his pre-war occupation as grocer and packer on his enlistment papers, not perhaps a profession that seems to recommend him as a candidate for the Royal Naval Air Service.
It was however the Royal Navy’s fledgling air arm that Edgar joined, signing up for the duration of the war on November 16, 1914, as an Air Mechanic II.
His enlistment papers tell us Edgar was five foot six inches tall, with a fresh complexion, brown hair and eyes. Unmarried at the time of joining up, Edgar’s mother Annie was listed as his next of kin.
After undergoing what must have been the most basic of basic training, on January 21, 1915, Edgar was posted to the seaplane carrier HMS Ark Royal, herself a newcomer to the fleet, having only been commissioned in December the previous year.
While his sketchy records do not give much detail on where his service took him, Edgar’s photos fill in the blanks to some degree.
During the campaign, Edgar was both aboard the Ark Royal off the Gallipoli Peninsula and then at Imbros island (Gökçeada as it now is). He served ashore on Imbros for a time, and was with the Ark Royal at Lemnos, which was the main forward base for the Allied forces during the campaign.
Subsequently, Edgar was at the island of Lesbos, the Greek port city of Salonika and at the RNAS seaplane base at Stavros on the Strymonian Gulf, east of Salonika.
Promoted to Air Mechanic I on June 1, 1916, while still serving on Ark Royal, Edgar was further promoted to Leading Mechanic on December 15 the same year. Transferred to the newly formed Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918, with the rank of corporal Edgar was appointed acting sergeant on August 1 that year, his promotion being confirmed on September 14.
Edgar left the Ark Royal late in 1916, being transferred back to the UK. After being posted to London, he was sent north to Dundee, where his records indicate he served out the remainder of the war.
Edgar was transferred to the RAF reserve in May 1919, having served four and a half years, his final discharge coming on April 30, 1920.
A preliminary search through records show that Edgar married in 1922, his wife being May – her maiden name as yet unknown. The couple had one daughter, named May after her mother.
Edgar Charles Cramp died some six months before his 74th birthday on May 15, 1954, the family still living in Sussex, their home being in Bexhill.
About the photos
Acquired in early 2017, the photos shown on this site are part of a collection of art and images depicting aspects of the Dardanelles Campaign of World War 1 and related conflicts owned by Serpil and Bill Sellars, journalists and media professionals who live on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
These 40 photos focus on a chapter of the campaign often forgotten, that of the war in the air. More importantly, they open a window to an even less considered aspect, that of the life and work of the air crew that kept those early aviators aloft.
Spanning from mid-1915 to late 1916, these photos show life ashore and afloat of the aircrew of HMS Ark Royal, ranging from a rare aerial image of the peninsula to the washing hung out to dry.
It appears that not all the photos were taken by Edgar, as according to the hand written captions either on the back or below some of the images he himself is in the shot.
At least some of the photos were sent home to his mother, who lived in London, while many are shots of the men Edgar served with, “the boys” as he called them. There are of course photos of the planes Ark Royal carried, the ship herself and of the places where Edgar served or visited.
Officers feature but rarely, this is an other rank’s album, depicting the life and interests of an enlisted man, a squire to those knights of sky who more often come to mind when the air war of 1914–1918 is thought of.
About the website
This project is the brainchild of Bernard de Broglio, a Sydney-based web developer and World War One enthusiast whose attention has been focused on the impact of the war on the Aegean region.
It was Bernard who proposed uploading this series of photographs taken by Edgar Charles Cramp onto the internet, both for the interest of other enthusiasts and in the hope that that enthusiasm would generate comment and further information about the scenes depicted.
Developing the concept further, Bernard suggested – and then created – this web site, both to showcase the photos in larger format and to allow for more information to be presented.
The comments of visitors to this site will be most welcome, as will any contributions of information that help further round out the data Bernard and I are compiling to accompany the images.
Submissions will be gratefully received and acknowledged, and can be sent to us by using the contact form provided.
Any requests to reproduce the original images on this site can also be made through the contact link.
We hope that by sharing these images, and the information that accompanies them, a little more light will be shed on the war in the air above the Gallipoli Peninsula and in the skies over the Aegean, and on the men who served on land, at sea and in the air more than a century ago.
Bill Sellars