Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall

Few military careers combine a Victoria Cross, escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp, senior command in the Royal Air Force, and the discovery of prehistoric monuments from the air. Group Captain Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall VC, MC (14 May 1894 - 17 February 1972) achieved all four. A pioneering Royal Flying Corps fighter pilot of the First World War, Insall won the Victoria Cross at the age of 21, endured nearly two years as a prisoner of war before escaping to neutral Holland, received the Military Cross for his escape exploits, and later rose to Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The National Army Museum describes him as holding a unique record as the only person to have been awarded the Victoria Cross and also successfully escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War.

Royal Flying Corps service

Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall was born in Paris on 14 May 1894. He joined the Army as a private in September 1914 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in March 1915, receiving his commission on 14 March. After qualifying as a pilot, he joined No. 11 Squadron RFC in France in July 1915. The squadron operated the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus, a two-seat pusher fighter with the gunner positioned in front of the pilot to provide an unobstructed field of fire. No. 11 Squadron was one of the earliest British units dedicated specifically to fighter operations on the Western Front.

The Victoria Cross action near Achiet

On 7 November 1915, Second Lieutenant Insall took off on a fighting patrol in Vickers F.B.5 serial 5074, accompanied by Air Mechanic First Class T. H. Donald as his gunner. Near Achiet, France, they sighted and pursued a German aircraft. Insall manoeuvred into close range while Donald fired a drum of ammunition into the enemy machine, stopping its engine and forcing it down in a ploughed field about four miles south-east of Arras.

Insall did not simply turn for home. Seeing the German crew leave their aircraft and prepare to fire, he descended to about 500 feet so Donald could engage them. Despite further enemy fire, Insall turned back and an incendiary bomb was dropped on the German machine, which was left enveloped in smoke. As the F.B.5 crossed the German trenches on its return journey, ground fire damaged its petrol tank. Insall managed to land under cover of a wood only about 500 yards inside the British lines. The Germans then shelled the grounded aircraft with roughly 150 rounds. Insall and Donald remained with their machine, repaired the rifle damage during the night behind screened lights, and at dawn Insall flew the aircraft back to his aerodrome.

For this action, Insall was awarded the Victoria Cross. His official citation opened with the words "For most conspicuous bravery, skill and determination" and was published in the Fifth Supplement to The London Gazette, issue 29414, on 23 December 1915, pages 12797-98. The Gazette's official index confirms Insall among the Victoria Cross recipients associated with that issue. Donald received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his part in the action.

Captivity, repeated escapes and the Military Cross

Only five weeks after the action that earned him the Victoria Cross, Insall's fortunes changed dramatically. On 14 December 1915, he was wounded and forced down behind German lines, becoming a prisoner of war. What followed was an extraordinary series of attempts to regain his freedom. He escaped from captivity at Heidelberg after work on a tunnel, only to be recaptured, and at Crefeld he attempted another escape by hiding among boxes carried on a horse-drawn luggage cart. Again, he was caught.

His final attempt succeeded. At Ströhen prisoner-of-war camp, Insall and several other prisoners concealed themselves in a cramped space excavated beneath the floor of the camp bathhouse. They remained hidden for approximately seventeen hours while German guards searched for them. After emerging, Insall eventually crossed into the neutral Netherlands following his escape on 28 August 1917, ending nearly two years of captivity. His achievement later became one of the defining episodes of his military career.

Insall subsequently received the Military Cross for his gallantry in escaping from captivity. The Royal Air Force specifically identifies his escape from prisoner-of-war captivity as the reason for the award. The official London Gazette supplement dated 16 December 1919, issue 31691, page 15615, lists Flight Lieutenant Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall, VC beneath the heading "Awarded the Military Cross." Unlike his Victoria Cross entry, the Gazette notice for the Military Cross does not contain a lengthy narrative citation, so a separate detailed MC citation should not be invented or attributed to him.

Royal Air Force career and service in Iraq

After returning to Britain, Insall could no longer resume combat operations, but he continued flying and undertook instructional duties before commanding No. 51 Home Defence Squadron. Following the creation of the Royal Air Force, he remained in permanent service and received a permanent RAF commission in 1919. His career continued through the inter-war years with increasingly senior flying and command appointments.

One of the most important periods of his later career came in Iraq, where he commanded No. 70 Squadron from 1927 to 1929. During this posting he served in connection with operations against the Akhwan in the Southern Desert of Iraq between November 1927 and May 1928. Insall was Mentioned in Despatches for distinguished services rendered in connection with those operations. This recognition is represented on his General Service Medal ribbon by the bronze oak-leaf emblem, while his surviving medal group records his service in the Southern Desert campaign.

Insall continued to rise through the RAF, serving in senior command and training appointments and eventually attaining the rank of Group Captain. His later service included command responsibilities during the Second World War, and he finally retired from the Royal Air Force in 1945, completing a military career that had begun in the opening months of the First World War.

Woodhenge and the birth of aerial archaeology

Insall's importance was not confined to military aviation. He also became an early practitioner of aerial archaeology, using the view from an aircraft to recognise ancient features that were difficult or impossible to appreciate from ground level.

In 1925, while flying near Durrington in Wiltshire, Squadron Leader Insall noticed unusual formations in a wheat field and photographed them from the air. The marks revealed concentric patterns and postholes belonging to a previously unrecognised prehistoric timber monument. Excavations by Ben and Maud Cunnington followed in 1926 and 1927, and the site became known as Woodhenge, now part of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. English Heritage directly credits Insall's aerial observation with the site's discovery.

His archaeological work continued. In June 1929, while conducting an aerial archaeological survey over Norfolk, Wing Commander Insall discovered the prehistoric timber circle and henge at Arminghall, south of Norwich. During the same period, Insall and H. Frederick Low recorded archaeological cropmarks at Markshall, Norfolk, through aerial photography. These discoveries placed him among the early pioneers who demonstrated the value of aircraft and aerial photographs in revealing Britain's hidden archaeological landscape.

Legacy

Group Captain Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall died on 17 February 1972, aged 77. His life had carried him from the fragile fighting aircraft of 1915 to German prisoner-of-war camps, RAF command appointments, operations in Iraq, Second World War service, and the emerging science of aerial archaeology. His Victoria Cross and surviving medal group are preserved by the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, ensuring that the physical record of his service survives alongside his remarkable story.

Insall's legacy is difficult to confine to a single achievement. He was a Victoria Cross airman who deliberately returned into enemy fire, a prisoner who refused to stop trying to escape, an RAF officer who served for three decades, and an aviator whose eye for patterns in the landscape helped reveal monuments thousands of years older than military aviation itself. More than a century after his flight near Achiet, Gilbert Insall VC, MC remains one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force.