Alan Bott

Bott worked as journalist before and just after the outbreak of the war, serving as "special correspondent" of the Daily Chronicle, based in Basel, Switzerland.{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1914/1914%20-%201105.html |title=Aircraft and the War |issue=306 |volume=VI |page=1105 |journal=Flight |date=6 November 1914 |accessdate=25 February 2015 }} He reported on the British air raid on the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen on 21 November 1914,{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1914/1914%20-%201165.html |title=Aircraft and the War |issue=309 |volume=VI |page=1165 |journal=Flight |date=27 November 1914 |accessdate=25 February 2015 }} and travelled to the Swiss town of Romanshorn, on the opposite side of Lake Constance, to observe the German response,{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1915/1915%20-%200030.html |title=Aircraft and the War |issue=315 |volume=VII |page=30 |journal=Flight |date=8 January 1915 |accessdate=25 February 2015 }} on one occasion going out into the middle of the lake on a boat to gain a closer look.{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1914/1914%20-%201180.html |title=Aircraft and the War |issue=810 |volume=VI |page=1180 |journal=Flight |date=4 December 1914 |accessdate=25 February 2015 }}

Bott returned to England in early 1915, and after training in the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps he was commissioned as a second lieutenant (on probation) in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 22 July 1915.{{London Gazette |date=23 July 1915 |supp=y |issue=29241 |page=7309 |nolink=yes}} He was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps with the rank of lieutenant on 1 September 1916,{{London Gazette |date=13 October 1916 |supp=y |issue=29784 |page=9926 |nolink=yes}} being appointed a flying officer (observer) on 26 September.{{London Gazette |date=13 October 1916 |issue=29783 |page=9863 |nolink=yes}}

He was posted to No. 70 Squadron RFC, flying as observer/gunner in a Sopwith 1½ Strutter with pilot Second Lieutenant Awdry Vaucour. On 24 August 1916 Bott and Vaucour were shot up and forced to land by Leopold Reimann of Jasta 1, but went on to claim three Fokker E fighter aircraft in September. On one flight, he put out an in-flight fire with his gloves; he was awarded his first Military Cross partly for this action.{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1916/1916%20-%200927.html |title=Further Rewards for R.F.C. |issue=409 |volume=VIII |page=923 |journal=Flight |date=26 October 1916 |accessdate=25 February 2015 }}

Bott then trained as a pilot, being appointed a flying officer on 1 June 1917.{{London Gazette |date=19 June 1917 |supp=y |issue=30143 |page=6160 |nolink=yes}} Posted to No. 111 Squadron RFC stationed in the Sinai Desert, he was appointed a flight commander with the acting rank of captain on 22 December.{{London Gazette |date=8 January 1918 |supp=y |issue=30467 |page=664 |nolink=yes}} Flying the Nieuport 23 bis No. B3995{{cite web |url= http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/Nieuport.html |title=Royal Flying Corps - Nieuport serials |work=airhistory.org.uk |year=2014 |accessdate=25 February 2015}} he destroyed two enemy reconnaissance aircraft on 14 and 15 April 1918, but on 22 April he was shot down and taken prisoner by the Turks.{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1918/1918%20-%200830.html |title=Roll of Honour |issue=500 |volume=X |page=828 |journal=Flight |date=25 July 1918 |accessdate=25 February 2015 }} Taken to Constantinople by train, Bott, accompanied by Captain Thomas W. White of the Australian Flying Corps, who had been captured in November 1915, escaped and travelled by ship to Odessa, Ukraine, then to Varna, Bulgaria, and overland to Salonika, Greece, arriving there just as the armistice was declared.Bott, Eastern Flights, pp.251–285. He was later awarded a Bar to his Military Cross "in recognition of gallantry in escaping from captivity".{{London Gazette |date=12 December 1919 |supp=y |issue=31691 |page=15615 |nolink=yes}} Bott left the RAF after the war, being transferred to the unemployed list on 18 February 1919.{{London Gazette |date=1 April 1919 |issue=31264 |page=4217 |nolink=yes}}

;Military Cross

:Second Lieutenant Alan John Bott, Royal Garrison Artillery, Special Reserve (attached Royal Flying Corps).

::"For conspicuous gallantry and skill. As observer he has been in many fights, and furnished many good reports. On one occasion, when his pilot was gliding back to our lines after his engine had been hit and stopped, he drove off an attacking aeroplane and put out with his hands a fire started by anti-aircraft guns. On another occasion, after driving down one hostile aeroplane, he fired at another, which dived and collided with a third. This last one fell vertically."{{London Gazette |date=20 October 1916 |supp=y |issue=29793 |page=10176 |nolink=yes}}

;Bar to the Military Cross

:Captain Alan John Bott, MC, Royal Garrison Artillery, Special Reserve.

::"In recognition of gallantry in escaping from captivity whilst a Prisoner of War."

Bott had written his first book An Airman's Outings, an account of the life of a British flying officer, while still serving in No. 70 Squadron in 1916. It had been published in 1917 under the pseudonym "Contact", and republished in the US as The Flying Ace and Cavalry of the Clouds. He followed it up with Eastern Nights and Flights, published in 1920, an account of his capture, imprisonment and subsequent escape. Between 1920 and 1926 he returned to journalism, as a special correspondent and as a drama critic for various newspapers.{{cite news |url=http://www.tikit.net/TiKiT%20Alan%20Bott.htm |title=Obituary: Alan Bott |newspaper=The Times |date=19 September 1952 |location=London |accessdate=25 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210204/http://www.tikit.net/TiKiT%20Alan%20Bott.htm |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}

Bott also retained his interest in flying, being granted a commission as a class "A" flying officer (on probation) in the Reserve of Air Force Officers on 22 May 1923.{{London Gazette |date=22 May 1923 |issue=32825 |page=3617 |nolink=yes}} He was transferred to class "C" on 7 October 1924,{{London Gazette |date=7 October 1924 |issue=32980 |page=7255 |nolink=yes}} and relinquished his commission on completion of service on 22 May 1926.{{London Gazette |date=22 June 1926 |issue=33174 |page=4045 |nolink=yes}} On 3 June 1928 he received Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 8309 on the DH.60 Moth at the Hampshire Aero Club.

Bott died in a hospital in Westminster, London, on 17 September 1952.

• {{cite book |first=Alan |last=Bott |title=An Airman's Outings |url=https://archive.org/stream/airmansoutings00bottuoft#page/n7/mode/2up|year=1917 |location=Edinburgh & London |publisher=W. Blackwood and Sons}}
• {{cite book |first=Alan |last=Bott |title=Eastern Flights |url=https://archive.org/stream/easternnightsand00bottrich#page/n7/mode/2up |year=1920 |location=Edinburgh & London |publisher=W. Blackwood and Sons}}
• {{cite book |first=Alan |last=Bott |title=Our Fathers |url=https://archive.org/details/ourfathers1870190000unse |url-access=registration |year=1931 |location=London |publisher=William Heinemann}}
• {{cite book |first=Alan |last=Bott |title=The Londoner's England |year=1947 |location=London |publisher=Avalon Press}}

Bott married Josephine Blumenfeld, daughter of Daily Express editor R. D. Blumenfeld, at Petworth in June 1930. They had three children; Simon (b. 1931), Annabel (b. 1933) and Susannah (b. 1935).

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |first1=Christopher F. |last1=Shores |first2=Norman |last2=Franks |authorlink2=Norman Franks |first3=Russell F. |last3=Guest |title=Above the Trenches: a Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920 |location=London, UK |publisher=Grub Street |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-948817-19-9 |name-list-style=amp}}

• {{Gutenberg author |id=35066|name=Alan Bott}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alan John Bott}}
• {{cite web |url= http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw49592/Alan-John-Bott |title=Portrait of Alan John Bott |work=National Portrait Gallery |year=2015 |accessdate=25 February 2015}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bott, Alan}}

Category:1893 births

Category:1952 deaths

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Military personnel from Stoke-on-Trent

Category:Royal Garrison Artillery officers

Category:Royal Flying Corps officers

Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War I

Category:British World War I flying aces

Category:World War I prisoners of war held by the Ottoman Empire

Category:British World War I prisoners of war

Category:English escapees

Category:Recipients of the Military Cross

Category:20th-century English non-fiction writers

Category:English male journalists

Category:English critics

Category:English book publishers (people)

Category:20th-century English businesspeople