Charles Pickthorn
British flying ace (1896-1938)
Major Charles Edward Murray Pickthorn (20 September 1896 – 3 March 1938) was a British World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories. His fourth victory resulted in the death of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia.
Family background
Pickthorn was born in Ilford, Essex, the second son of Charles Wright Pickthorn and Edith Maud Berkeley Murray. He was educated at Aldenham School, Hertfordshire. His older brother was Sir Kenneth William Murray Pickthorn, .
World War I
Pickthorn was commissioned as a second lieutenant (on probation) in the Army Service Corps on 8 February 1915, and was confirmed in his rank on 20 March 1916.
He was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps with the temporary rank of lieutenant on 1 June 1916, and appointed a flying officer (observer) on 25 June. He was posted to No. 8 Squadron to serve as an observer/gunner in the B.E.2c two-seater reconnaissance aircraft and light bomber. On 29 June his pilot, Lieutenant Vaisey, was badly wounded in combat and lost consciousness; Pickthorn managed to fly them back to base while also sending a message in morse requesting medical aid be ready when they landed.
“Charles Pickthorn” enters the record as british flying ace (1896-1938). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Charles, Pickthorn and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5081651. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1896, 1938, 1915 and 1916.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Pickthorn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.