John Pinder (RAF officer)
British World War I flying ace
Captain John William Pinder DFC (14 February 1898 – 16 August 1920) was a British First World War flying ace, who flew for the Royal Navy Air Service, and later the Royal Air Force.
Early life
John William Pinder was born on 14 February 1898 in Deal, Kent, England.
World War I service
Pinder joined military service for World War I when old enough. On 22 October 1916, he was appointed as a probationary flight officer in the Royal Naval Air Service and posted to its headquarters on HMS President. On 3 January 1917 he was riding in the rear seat of Curtiss JN4 serial number 8820 when it crashlanded at Redcar, tearing off the undercarriage and damaging the propeller.
After completion of training as a pilot, he was posted to No. 9 Squadron RNAS. During the unit's operations along the Belgian coast, he scored his first three aerial victories. He was subsequently appointed a flight commander and transferred to No. 13 Squadron RNAS. By 5 December 1917, his score had risen to six, and he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
On 17 January 1918, he was reported accidentally injured in Flight newsletter, though the date of injury was not reported.
“John Pinder (RAF officer)” enters the record as british World War I flying ace. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Pinder and officer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6252933. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1920, 1916 and 1917.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Pinder (RAF officer)” 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.