Charles Joseph Mackay, who flew with the Royal Flying Corps and was a pioneering figure in the Royal Air Force, was probably the best air marshall the new service never had. Born near his mother’s family estate at Aughafin, Co Westmeath, on October 30th, 1895, he was the eldest son of John Mackay, a solicitor in Dundalk.
Charles, and his younger brother George Frederick, were educated at Ampleforth, from where they entered the British army.
Upon the outbreak of the first World War, he was a reserve officer to the Connaught Rangers, but soon joined the 5th Leinsters under Col William Le Queux.
In February 1915, he was posted to the 1st Leinsters in the Ypres Salient, where he experienced trench warfare.
He learned about the Royal Flying Corps through a weekly copy of Aeroplane, but was barred from transferring to the new corps.
On April 22nd, 1915, his unit was overrun “by hordes of red-trousered French-African troops, literally mad with terror . . . bolting wildly towards Ypres”; the first gas attack of the war had prompted their flight. That same night, a slight bayonet wound “severed my connection with infantry soldiering”.
Flying school
In July 1915, Charles reported to a Flying Training School at Shoreham and, after earning his wings, served in Home Defence conducting “anti-Zeppelin work”. In December, he was sent overseas to No. 2 Squadron at the Loos Salient, where their work comprised reconnaissance, bombing and artillery co-operation. Air operations were then poorly coordinated, with no formation flying, and bombing was largely inaccurate.
One botched air raid resulted in nine crashes, two in the English Channel and one even in Suffolk. Charles crash-landed at Leopoldsville, just inside the Belgian lines. Only three pilots returned to their aerodromes.
In April 1916, Charles received a week’s leave in Dublin and, on his last day, was lunching in the Metropole when the Easter insurrection broke out.
He “narrowly escaped spending some days as a prisoner in the cellar of the GPO” by disguising himself in ill-fitting civilian clothes and leaving with his uniform parcelled under his arm.
His brother Fred, then a young cadet, was less fortunate. Captured by the Boland’s Mill garrison, Fred was blindfolded for 48 hours and “threatened with summary execution at frequent intervals”.
Charles also took part in the Somme offensive in July 1916, commanding No 4 Squadron’s contact patrol, photography and trench bombardment flight.
By Christmas 1916, he was posted to Home Establishment, spending four months instructing Russian pilots. “At this, I was a failure”, he concluded.
Charles returned to the Ypres Salient in August 1917 to command No 9 Squadron’s counter-battery flight. Here he won the Military Cross for taking valuable photographs of the enemy’s position, in unfavourable weather, while fighting off four hostile aircraft for ten minutes until assistance arrived, and afterwards continued work with the artillery.
In December 1917, he took command of No 59 Squadron, which fought in the March Offensive of 1918. They were then equipped with the RE 8, a twin-seater biplane used for both bombing and observation. Charles’s squadron was supporting the British advance at Cambrai when the armistice came into effect.
Finishing the war with awards of the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre, Major Mackay was additionally awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in January 1919.
He returned to Ireland to command 106 Squadron, but discipline was deplorable and his men were “unsettled, anxious only for demobilisation and not slow to reveal their anxiety”.
After being posted to 100 Squadron at Baldonnel in 1920, he remarked: “Sinn Fein activity now commenced in earnest. Murders were of a daily occurrence on all sides. The lot of an officer ‘living out’ in Dublin became particularly unpleasant . . . every individual with a black hat and long hair became a potential enemy”.
Aircraft proved ineffective for this type of warfare, apart from the conveyance of secret mails dropped into the yards of military strongpoints.
On occasion, Charles took part in armed patrols in Crossley tenders. Additional excitement was added to by the “uncertainty as to the attitude of any Black and Tan patrols whom we might chance to encounter”.
Charles Mackay remained in the RAF, lecturing in their Staff College at Andover and rising to the rank of wing commander. In 1930, aged just 35, he died of a brain haemorrhage. His obituary conveyed the esteem in which he was regarded within the service.
His brother, Fred who also served in the Great War, continued his career in the British army.
In 1959, Col Mackey wrote to his former captor, Eamon de Valera, congratulating him upon his election as president, aptly demonstrating the magnanimity of former foes.