From Antarctica To The RFC.

In a letter to the Times (August 3rd/ Register/Lives Remembered) Walter Kahn writes in remembrance of Squadron leader Tony Gaze and includes the following:

"The father of Tony Gaze….whilst serving in the RFC in the First World War, was shot down by Germans. His captors demanded to know why he had a white medal ribbon on his tunic. They were so impressed with his answer – that it was the Polar Medal as he had been a member of Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the Antarctic – that before he was taken off to a PoW camp, the Germans held a dinner in his honour in their officers' mess."

Does anyone have more information about his career in the RFC?

The second party of Shackleton's expedition left London in September 1914 to lay depots for the main group as they came across the pole from the Weddell Sea and four men, Richards, Gaze, Stevens and Spencer-Smith were put ashore in January 1915 to occupy Scott's Hut.

Incidentally my source for this, a Readers Digest book on Antarctica (junk shop find), also has a photo of the first aeroplane on the continent, a Vickers REP monoplane intended for use with Mawson's expedition of 1912. This unfortunate machine crashed during demonstrations in Australia, failed in its intended us and was stripped of its wings and fabric and used as a tractor for a short time before being abandoned.

Morris