{"id":7828,"date":"2023-05-04T14:06:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T20:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=7828"},"modified":"2023-05-05T13:20:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T19:20:56","slug":"hilary-baker-rex","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/hilary-baker-rex\/","title":{"rendered":"Hilary Baker Rex"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Philadelphia, October 13, 1893 \u2013 Bruville, France, September 19, 1918)1<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Oxford & Grantham<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u272f\u00a0No. 50 H.D. Squadron<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u272f\u00a05 T.D.S.<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u272f\u00a05 T.S. Wyton\u00a0<\/i><\/a>\u272f\u00a0Marske & Chattis Hill<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u272f\u00a0France<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

One of Hilary Baker Rex\u2019s ancestors was German-born farmer and blacksmith Hans J\u00fcrg R\u00fcger, who settled in Chestnut Hill (now part of northwest Philadelphia) in the early part of the eighteenth century; the variously spelled last name was changed to Rex.<\/p>\n

Hilary Baker Rex\u2019s father, Walter Edwin Rex, was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer; his mother, the former Isabel Tolbert Emory, was descended from a Philadelphia mayor, Hilary Baker. Hilary Baker Rex had an older sister and a younger brother; another, older, brother died young.2<\/a> Rex\u2019s father succumbed to heart trouble in the summer of 1916.3<\/a><\/p>\n

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Rex’s senior class photo from p. 80 of the University of Pennsylvania Record (yearbook), 1916.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rex attended the Chestnut Hill Academy before enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with the class of 1916 with a degree in architecture. He joined the Philadelphia architectural firm of Brockie and Hastings, but in the spring of 1917 left for the officers training camp at Fort Niagara, New York.4<\/a> Having evidently applied for and been accepted by the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, he went to the School of Military Aeronautics at Cornell and graduated from ground school there on September 1, 1917.5<\/a><\/p>\n

Rex, along with most of his ground school classmates, including Clark Brockway Nichol, who had been at Ft. Niagara and Cornell with him, chose or was chosen to continue training in Italy. A few days after ground school graduation, Rex left for Mineola on Long Island to await further orders. He was able to get in a brief visit home before the 150-man strong \u201cItalian detachment\u201d proceeded to the west side of lower Manhattan on September 18, 1917, where they boarded the Cunard line\u2019s\u00a0Carmania<\/i>\u00a0and set sail. The initial port of call was Halifax, where they arrived the morning of September 20, 1917. The next day the\u00a0Carmania<\/i> set out as part of a convoy for the Atlantic crossing. Like a number of second Oxford detachment members, Rex started keeping a diary, not writing every day, but frequently enough to provide a reasonably detailed record.6<\/a>\u00a0Much of what follows is based on the diary.<\/p>\n

On the 22nd<\/sup>, Rex wrote that \u201cWe are getting into a routine now. Calisthenics at 11.30 A.M. (breakfast at 9.00 AM), lunch at 1.30 P.M., boat drill at 4.30 P.M., dinner at 7.00 P.M. & Italian classes from 8.30 \u2013 9.30 P.M.\u201d Italian was being taught by Fiorello La Guardia, also bound for Italy; the cadets travelled first class and were treated very well. On Sunday the 30th<\/sup>, after several days of no entries, Rex wrote that \u201cThings have been going on the same as usual except that Friday . . . they started the submarine watch, this detachment having been picked to do the watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Carmania<\/i> passed safely through the dangerous coastal waters and docked at Liverpool early in the morning of October 2, 1917. Rex wrote in his diary that they \u201cDisembarked about 11 o\u2019clock and then Gloom of Glooms we found that our orders were changed and that we had to go to Oxford ground school for six weeks and the Italy trip was off. Such is life in the army. The Major [Leslie MacDill] has gone to Paris to see if he can get us out of this, but there doesn\u2019t seem to be much hope. I never thought I would be an Oxford Don.\u201d7<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Oxford & Grantham<\/i><\/a><\/h6>\n
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From Rex’s diary. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Oxford the cadets were provisionally assigned to various Oxford colleges for their first night. Rex was in Lincoln College, whose architecture he appreciated, although he was dismayed by its decrepitude (\u201cthe limestone walls are hanging in flakes\u201d8<\/a>). The next day the men received more permanent assignments to Christ Church College and The Queen\u2019s College; Rex was in a room on the top floor of Christ Church: \u201cNick (my Bunkie), Shorty Suiter, Opie Reed and myself are together\u201d9<\/a>\u2014Nichol, Wilbur Carleton Suiter, and Richard Brumback Reed had all been in Rex\u2019s ground school class at Cornell.<\/p>\n

Having arrived at Oxford after the beginning the week\u2019s classes, the men waited until the following Monday to begin instruction at the Royal Flying Corps\u2019s No. 2 School of Military Aeronautics. A few days into the new week, Rex wrote that \u201cSo far we have had nothing new in school except different engines. The course here is better systematized than ours was.\u201d10<\/a> Relief from tedium was provided by rowing on the Thames and exploring Oxford and the surrounding countryside, and, about two weeks into the course, by being reassigned to rooms in Exeter College. This came about when, the evening of Saturday, October 20, 1917, \u201cthey wouldn\u2019t let us out, but somehow or other nearly everyone managed to get drunk. The Colonel [Bertram Richard White Beor, Commandant of the Oxford S.M.A.] caught someone in the Queen\u2019s Squadron out without a pass, so he went back & got them all out of bed at 11:30 and had a formation. They were all so drunk they could not stand in line, but passed out right and left. The Colonel is rabid and wants to can the whole crowd. I don\u2019t think anyone would mind much.\u201d11<\/a>\u00a0 Beor eventually calmed down, but insisted that all the Americans be segregated from the other R.F.C. cadets and housed in Exeter College.<\/p>\n

The men remained at Oxford for four weeks, not six, but this was small consolation, as nearly all of them, including Rex, were posted in early November not to flying squadrons for training as they hoped, but to a machine gunnery school, Harrowby Camp, northeast of Grantham in Lincolnshire.12<\/a> On the plus side, as Rex noted in his diary several days after arriving at Grantham, \u201cThey are treating us royally here. We have a mess of our own and the meals are better than those on the Carmania. The quarters are very comfortable. I am in what they call a \u2018hut\u2019 with seven other fellows.\u201d13<\/a> His \u201chut mates\u201d initially were Wendell Ellison Borncamp, George Atherton Brader, Ralf Andrews Crookston, Burr Watkins Leyson, Nichol, Donald Swett Poler, and Donald Andrew Wilson; Lloyd Ludwig joined them partway through the month.14<\/a> Rex thought the machine gun course interesting, but found he was \u201cbeginning to agree with Goody [Weston Whitney Goodnow] that this is a \u2018jaw-bone war.\u2019 It is as far as we are concerned anyway.\u201d15<\/a> Rex spent some of his evenings going on walks with Goodnow and also went out twice to \u201crun with the Harrowby beagles\u201d16<\/a>\u2014\u201cbeagling,\u201d following the hounds on foot rather than on horseback, is an activity also mentioned by second Oxford detachment member Francis Kinloch Read during his time at Grantham.17<\/a><\/p>\n

In his diary entry for November 17, 1917, Rex noted that \u201c50 of the fellows are being posted to flying schools on Monday [November 19, 1917]. The rest of us stay here and take the Lewis gun now that we have finished the Vickers. Goody is going so I guess I\u2019ll have to find some one else to take walks with nights.\u201d Suiter stepped in as his walking partner. Towards the end of the month Rex was finding that \u201cFour weeks in one place is long enough.\u201d18<\/a>\u00a0Thanksgiving provided a diversion; there was a lively American football game followed by a feast.<\/p>\n

The Lewis machine gun course finished up the morning of Saturday, November 1, 1917. The next day was taken up with preparations for departure from Grantham: \u201cWe are being posted to flying schools Monday. I go to 50th<\/sup> Training Squadron, Harrietsham, near Maidstone, with a bunch I don\u2019t know at all.\u201d The \u201cbunch\u201d was Robert Jenkins Griffith, Harrison Barbour Irwin, Edward Carter Landon, Robert Thomas Palmer, Pryor Richardson Perkins, and Albert Sidney Woolfolk, who had all been at ground school at Ohio State University together.19<\/a><\/p>\n

No. 50 H.D. Squadron<\/i><\/a><\/a><\/h6>\n
\"A
The men posted to No. 50 H.D. Squadron, from Foss’s list of men posted December 3, 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The seven cadets were not in fact being sent to a training squadron, but rather, as Rex soon discovered, to a home defense squadron. No. 50 Squadron\u2019s aircraft at the turn of the year included the B.E.2e and the A.W. FK.8, both two-seaters used for reconnaissance and bombing, and the B.E.12b, a single-seater night fighter; there were apparently no planes at No. 50 designed for training when the men arrived.20<\/a><\/p>\n

The squadron\u2019s headquarters was at Harrietsham in Kent, but its flights were at this time detached to Bekesbourne and Detling.21<\/a> Griffith, Irwin, and Woolfolk went to C flight at Bekesbourne near Canterbury, while Rex, along with Landon, Palmer, and Perkins, was assigned to B flight at Detling.22<\/a><\/p>\n

On December 5, 1917, Rex wrote in his diary that it \u201cDoesn\u2019t look as though we would get any flying instruction here.\u201d The cadets did, however get some time in the air. In the same diary entry Rex wrote that \u201cThey took me up for a flip in an A.W. this morning and we were up about three quarters of an hour. . . . I was tickled to pieces with the flip, but I want to fly one myself.\u201d In mid-December \u201cThe captain says we may have some dual control soon,\u201d and early in the new year, Rex recorded in his diary that he had \u201cbeen up twice on dual control in the last week. Have not got the feel of it yet very much, but I think I will soon.\u201d23<\/a> A week later he wrote that he \u201cDid some dual take offs and landings last week.\u201d24<\/a>\u00a0Rex, like Palmer and Perkins, does not record flights made at Detling in his pilot\u2019s flying log book\u2014and they did not count towards his accumulation of flying hours\u2014so there is no record of what plane was being used.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Rex arrived at Detling there was an air raid. In the very early hours of December 6, 1917, \u201cThe readiness signal came thru, the flight got out of bed with much cursing and in an incredibly short time the flares on the aerodrome were blazing and we had 4 planes up. By that time the archies were blazing away all around the horizon. The Huns were over in Gothas and one flew over the aerodrome. Our planes came in one by one without having seen anything and we went to bed about 5.30.\u201d25<\/a> Two of the Gotha bombers succumbed to anti-aircraft fire (\u201carchie\u201d), one coming down at Rochford in Essex, the other near Canterbury.26<\/a>\u00a0Rex was among those who went to inspect the one near Canterbury, and he took the opportunity to look at the Cathedral and make notes on its architecture.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, there was not a great deal to occupy the American cadets at Detling. Rex took \u201csome long walks with [Thomas Emsley] Garside dud afternoons\u201d; Garside was also his companion in excursions to Maidstone for dinner and the movies.27<\/a><\/p>\n

On January 19, 1918, Rex wrote that \u201cThe C.O. says we leave here soon for a regular training squadron,\u201d but it was not until January 28, 1918, that he, along with Palmer, Perkins, and Landon, arrived at Stamford. The next day they went to No. 5 Training Depot Squadron at Easton on the Hill about two miles south-southwest of Stamford.<\/p>\n

<\/a>5 T.D.S.<\/i><\/a><\/h6>\n

Initially the men were \u201cbilleted in what is known as \u2018the cottage.\u2019 It is a nice cottage\u2014for cows. . . . No water except what the batman brings in a bucket from a water cart in the front yard.\u201d28<\/a> A good mess offered some compensation, as did the fact that \u201cNick and Shorty Suiter and quite a few of the Italian Detachment have shown up here.\u201d29<\/a>\u00a0Towards the end of February Rex and his mates moved from Easton on the Hill to an old isolation hospital on the eastern edge of Stamford, \u201can old tin [?] place that looks like nothing on earth, set out in a lumpy field on the edge of a dump with a brick factory in back and a cemetary [sic<\/i>] on one side.\u201d Rex was glad they at least still had their \u201ctrusty batman.\u201d30<\/a><\/p>\n

The first week at 5 T.D.S. was spent on the ground in classes (\u201csame old stuff, buzzer, M.G.\u201d).31<\/a> Rex went on his first instructional flight of twenty-five minutes the afternoon of February 7, 1918; the plane was a B.E.2e ([B?]9993).32<\/a> The pilot was Wilfred Lawry MacIlwraith; it apparently did not bother Rex that his first instructor was nineteen, five years younger than himself\u2014or at least he does not mention it in his diary.33<\/a> He was concerned only that the weather was \u201crotten and probably would be for two months.\u201d34<\/a>\u00a0This prediction notwithstanding, he flew again on the 11th<\/sup>\u00a0and 12th<\/sup>, and twice on the 15th<\/sup>, now with the slightly older George Eastwood.<\/p>\n

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From Rex’s pilot’s flying log book. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three days later, on February 18, 1918, Nichol, who had trained with Rex at Ft. Niagara and Cornell and roomed with him at Oxford, was killed at 5 T.D.S.: \u201cPoor old Nick has gone west. Got into some sort of a spin to-day and dove straight into the ground from about 200 feet in a BE2e. He was smashed to pieces and the plane is a write-off.\u201d35<\/a> Rex had the sad duty of writing to Nichol\u2019s mother and, on February 21, 1918, he, along with John Joseph Devery, Landon, Perkins, Suiter, and Woolfolk, served as a pall bearer at Nichol\u2019s funeral.36<\/a><\/p>\n

Rex was shaken by his friend\u2019s death, as well as by the other fatalities and crashes among men he knew; nevertheless by early March frustration at how little flying he was able to do became the theme of his diary entries: \u201cI\u2019m fed up! I\u2019m supposed to be on BE\u2019s and there are never any running or else the weather\u2019s rotten. There\u2019s always something. I\u2019ve hardly been off the ground for three weeks.\u201d37<\/a>\u00a0There was also the question of when he would finally receive his commission, but, as Rex noted in the same diary entry, \u201c[John Warren] Leach has his commission so things in that quarter don\u2019t look quite so hopeless.\u201d However, Leach had arrived at 5 T.D.S. from a training, rather than a home defense squadron, so he had a considerable advantage over Rex.<\/p>\n

Things improved dramatically a few days later, when Rex was able to put in several hours of dual flying with Eastwood, with particular attention to landings. Then, on March 12, 1918: \u201cO memorable day! I went solo this morning\u2014and made one priceless landing and one rotten one.\u201d By March 21, 1918, he had put in a little over nine hours solo and had completed his height test, one of the requirements for graduation from this stage of R.F.C. training: \u201c8000 ft. for 15 min. then switch off and glide down.\u201d38<\/a>\u00a0Five days later he flew solo to Wyton and back in a B.E.2e, completing another graduation requirement, a cross-country flight, and his number of solo hours (16 hours and 25 minutes) was now more than double the number of hours he had flown dual.<\/p>\n

In the meantime Rex apparently experienced his first crash, a minor one. In his diary for March 29, 1918, he wrote: \u201cLast week I stood a B.E. up on its nose in the middle of the \u2019drome\u2014the flight it belonged to were awfully fed up about it. Only broke the prop.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From Rex’s pilots flying log book. It may have been the “nose-heavy” B.E.2e 9993 whose prop he broke. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rex went up in an R.E.8 for the first time on March 22, 1918, flying dual with Eastwood, and again several times in April in preparation for the final graduation requirement, flying an operational aircraft (such as the R.E.8) solo. Flying an R.E.8 at this point was not in itself predictive of the type of plane a pilot would fly operationally: men who graduated on R.E.8s went on to fly both scouts and observation \/ bomber planes. But Rex wrote in his diary on March 29, 1918, that \u201cThey say now we\u2019ll probably go on R.E.8s\u2014that means Art[illery] Obs[ervation].\u2014rotten.\u201d Rex, like many of his fellow pilots in training, presumably was hoping to fly scouts.<\/p>\n

Bad weather (fog) meant that Rex spent a good many days in April on the ground. Once the weather had improved towards the end of the month, he put in many hours flying dual, mostly with Eastwood, but also with Peter Dudley Stuart and Alan Carnegy Horsbrugh, practicing aerial photography, various types of turns, and forced landing.<\/p>\n

In April Rex\u2019s living situation at Stamford changed yet again, this time for the better. He had become good friends with Clayton Joseph Knight, who had also been posted to Stamford at the end of January, and the two of them moved into \u201ca room together over the baths\u201d39<\/a>\u2014this was The Baths at 16 Bath Row, the home and business establishment of Mrs. Ingle in Stamford; her previous roomers had included second Oxford detachment members William Ludwig Deetjen and Linn Humphrey Forster. \u201cThe Ingles are very good to us. They let us have a fire whenever we want and hot water and baths free.\u201d40<\/a><\/p>\n

In early April Rex, Knight, and many others, were, finally, recommended by Pershing for their commissions\u2014but as \u201cFirst Lieutenants Aviation Reserve non flying.\u201d41<\/a> Earlier in the year it had been brought to Pershing\u2019s attention that many cadets had been held up in their progress towards commissions by the limited training facilities. On March 13, 1918, he had cabled to Washington requesting permission \u201cto immediately issue to all cadets now in Europe temporary or Reserve commissions in Aviation Section Signal Corps. . . .\u201d42<\/a> Washington approved the plan in a cable dated March 21, 1918, but stipulated that the commissioned men be \u201cput on non-flying status. Upon satisfactory completion of flying training they can be transferred as flying officers.\u201d43<\/a> Hence the \u201cnon-flying\u201d status attached to Rex\u2019s commission recommendation in the April 8, 1918, cablegram. It took over a month and some prodding, but finally, on May 13, 1918, Washington cabled back approval.44<\/a><\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Rex graduated from this stage of R.F.C. \/ R.A.F. training the next day (the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918). Despite having fulfilled most of the requirements for graduation in March, it was not until May 9, 1918, that he flew an R.E.8 solo, thus completing the final graduation requirement.<\/p>\n

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From Rex’s pilot’s flying log book, his last week at 5 T.D.S. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rex\u2019s R.F.C. Training Transfer Card shows him to have graduated on May 14, 1918\u2014it is not clear why the graduation date did not, as usually happened, coincide with his first solo flight in an operational aircraft.<\/p>\n

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From Rex’s R.F.C. Training Transfer Card. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While at Stamford, Rex and Knight made excursions to Nottingham together and, now, having graduation leave, again spent time there. Rex also spent some of his leave in Sheffield, staying with the family of James Paton Auld, a civil engineer who had spent part of the war working in the U.S. for the British government.45<\/a><\/p>\n

On returning to Stamford \u201cthey told me to get ready to leave as I was posted to Wyton to fly DH9\u2019s. Was in a hectic stew for a while with red tape and collecting my junk, but finally got off with [Robert Brewster] Porter, Woolfolk, and Perkins.\u201d46<\/a>\u00a0Rex\u2019s R.F.C. Training Transfer Card gives the date of this posting as May 23, 1918.<\/p>\n

<\/a>No. 5 T.S. Wyton<\/i><\/a><\/h6>\n

Rex once again initially had bad luck with accommodations: \u201cThey put us under canvas and the first night I slept on the windward side of the tent. It rained like stink and all my things were soaking in the morning. It would<\/i> be like that.\u201d47<\/a> However, flying DH9s (\u201cPriceless busses! 110 miles per hour on the level\u201d48<\/a>) was some compensation. Rex made his first flight at Wyton on May 26, 1918, in DH.9 [D]5562, flying dual with William Petre for forty-five minutes, practicing turns and landings. In the afternoon he again went up dual with Petre, this time in a D.H.6 (a plane designed for training) and immediately afterwards took the same plane [D]6549 up for ten minutes solo. The next morning, after another long dual flight in a D.H.9 with Petre, he made his first solo flight in a D.H.9\u2014ten minutes in [C]2165; another solo flight the next afternoon in the same plane might have been longer but that the \u201cengine cut out.\u201d49<\/a><\/p>\n

There was very welcome news at the end of the month: \u201cour commissions came through in a bunch . . . at last! I don\u2019t believe anyone at home realizes how we have waited for them and thought each month that they would come\u2014or that they would never come.\u201d50<\/a> It had taken from May 13, 1918, the date of the cablegram from Washington approving the commissions, until the end of the month for the news to trickle down; Rex was, finally, placed on active duty on May 30, 1918.51<\/a> \u201cNow that [my commission] has come I find that I have gotten used to it\u2014[lieutenant\u2019s] bars, Sam Browne [belt], wings and all\u2014very quickly. I\u2019m even getting sick of being saluted already.\u201d52<\/a><\/p>\n

Also on May 30th<\/sup>, which was Decoration (Memorial) Day, \u201cwe had a half holiday and I went to Stamford and stayed at my old billet with the Ingles. Had a corking time. I feel now that I have a \u2018home away from home without hymns\u2019 as the saying goes.\u201d53<\/a><\/p>\n

Rex remained at Wyton through the first two weeks of June, adding many solo hours flying in B.E.2e\u2019s and DH.9s; at the end of his time there he had forty-four hours and forty minutes of solo flying in addition to his eighteen hours and twenty-five minutes dual. On June 6, 1918, he passed another height test, flying DH.9 [C]2165: \u201cwent up to 15000 ft. this PM and had a gorgeous time. It seems like the threshold of another world up there.\u201d54<\/a>\u00a0Three days later, \u201cThey tell me I will go to Marske (Aerial Gunnery School) about the 11th<\/sup>. I\u2019m certainly getting out of here quickly.\u201d55<\/a> This was optimistic; it wasn\u2019t until June 17, 1918, that he set out with Harvey Donald Spangler and second Oxford detachment member Albert Elliott Parrish for Marske-by-the-Sea in north Yorkshire.56<\/a> During his last few days at Wyton, \u201cI\u2019ve been ferrying busses between here and Thetford. Saw Clayton Knight twice. Wish he was going to Marske with me.\u201d57<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Marske & Chattis Hill<\/i><\/a><\/h6>\n

The first week at No. 2 Fighting School was devoted to class work again: \u201csame old stuff with some of the hot air extracted,\u201d as Rex described it in his diary entry for June 18, 1918. Soon he had \u201cfinished ground work and have been flying practically for the last two days\u2014fighting other busses and doing formation.\u201d58<\/a>\u00a0 Rex\u2019s first flight at Marske, on June 24, 1918, was in an Avro, when he was tested by instructor William Buckingham. By the end of day on June 28, 1918, he had put in nine and a half hours of flying \u201csolo\u201d\u2014which is to say, he was piloting, but now always with a passenger, usually an unnamed mechanic, but on one occasion Parrish.59<\/a><\/p>\n

It was Rex\u2019s understanding that his next posting would be Stonehenge, i.e., the School of Bomb Dropping and Navigation in Wiltshire. It turned out he would indeed be in Wiltshire, but at the Chattis Hill Wireless Telephony School. He and Parrish, \u201c(after the usual hours of red tape) managed to get away from Marske\u201d on June 29, 1918, and travelled to London, before reporting to Chattis Hill. They had a busy, enjoyable day in London: \u201cNo one knows where we are and we are supposed to have permission from Hdqtrs. to come here, but we didn\u2019t have time to get it. Neither of us is dressed quite regulation so we spend most of our time dodging the A.P.M. around the Regent Palace, where we are staying.\u201d60<\/a>\u00a0Rex ran into Garside, his friend from Detling, as well as naval aviator James Caverly Newlin, Jr., whom he knew from Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The time at Chattis Hill was brief; Rex notes laconically that \u201cthis course is not bad.\u201d61<\/a>\u00a0C. G. Jeffords, in\u00a0Observers and Navigators<\/i>, describes how \u201cExperimental work on speech transmission was under way in the UK by May 1915\u201d; field trials in wireless telephony were undertaken in France in 1917. The Wireless Experimental Establishment at Biggin Hill started training Bristol Fighter and DH.4 and DH.9 crews in January 1918; in early April 1918 the training was \u201ctaken over by the newly established Wireless Telephony School which moved to Chattis Hill\u201d around April 15, 1918.62<\/a>\u00a0Such technology must have seemed a huge advance over the Morse code transmission and reception the second Oxford detachment members had spent many hours learning and practicing.<\/p>\n

Rex\u2019s time at Chattis Hill was punctuated by another trip to London for July 4, and he and Parrish were there once again when the course was over. On Thursday, July 11, 1918, Rex wrote that \u201cWe are waiting to hear from our Hdqtrs. And I think we will probably be sent to France Saturday.\u201d In the meantime, he enjoyed London: \u201cSaw Chu Chin Chow the other night and enjoyed it immensely. Had lunch today at the Overseas Officer\u2019s Club (Automobile Club) with Parrish and his cousin Dr. [Clarence Couch] Elebash.\u201d This was Rex\u2019s last diary entry\u2014\u201cI think I will leave this book here in the suitcase I store at Cox\u2019s because if I take it to France and then get scuppered or wounded they will go through my kit and pinch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
The end of Rex’s diary. Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/a><\/i>France<\/i><\/a><\/h6>\n

Rex\u2019s name, along with Parrish\u2019s, appears in a long list of men ordered to \u201cproceed from London, England, to Issoudun, France, reporting upon arrival thereat to the Commanding Officer for duty in connection with aviation.\u201d63<\/a>\u00a0Issoudun, in the Loire region of central France, was the location of the American 3rd Aviation Instruction Center. There Rex would almost certainly have spent time training on American built DH-4s. His extant pilot\u2019s flying log book ends with his last flight at Marske\u2014perhaps he left the log book along with his diary at Cox & Co. in London\u2014so there is no documentation of his flying in France.<\/p>\n

On August 19, 1918, Rex was assigned to the U.S. 8th Aero Squadron. His fellow second Oxford detachment members Edward Addison Griffiths, Anker Christian Jensen, Edward Russell Moore, and John Howard Raftery had been assigned the previous day, and Newton Philo Bevin soon followed.64<\/a><\/p>\n

The 8th Aero was an observation squadron flying DH-4s; it had been at Amanty (about seventeen miles southwest of Toul) since the last day of July, attached to I Corps Air Service of the American First (and at that time only) Army. On August 31, 1918, as part of the planning for the St. Mihiel Offensive, the squadron was transferred to IV Corps and moved to Ourches-sur-Meuse, about eight miles due west of Toul, where IV Corps Air Service was based.65<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The all too brief official history of the 8th<\/sup> Aero notes that \u201cWhile at Amanty advantage was taken of our short distance from \u2018the lines\u2019 and a fortnight period of intensive training engaged in, which included flights over the enemy\u2019s country.\u201d66<\/a>\u00a0This is substantiated by Jensen\u2019s log book, which shows eight \u201ctest flights\u201d in the last half of August; these continued during the first week at Ourches. It is reasonable to assume that Rex\u2019s activity was similar.<\/p>\n

\"\"
8th Aero assignments two days before the St. Mihiel Offensive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a \u201cRoster of Commissioned Personnel\u201d dated September 10, 1918, that shows how the officers of the 8th<\/sup> Aero were divided up into flights. Rex, flying plane No. 11, was in B flight, which was led by Jenson. Rex\u2019s observer was William Francis Gallagher, who, like Rex, was from Philadelphia; the two men may already have crossed paths, as both had been at Fort Niagara at the same time.67<\/a><\/p>\n

The offensive to reduce the St. Mihiel salient began in the early hours of September 12, 1918. The 8th Aero was assigned to assist IV Corps\u2019s 1st Division, which was at the westernmost part of the American line on the south front of the salient. The squadron C.O., John Gilbert Winant, reported that on the 12th and 13th planes of the 8th Aero \u201cwere in the air for thirty-six hours and thirty minutes . . . and twenty-four separate missions were accomplished.\u201d68<\/a><\/p>\n

The missions assigned were various: operations orders for the day specified that the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero, along with the 90th<\/sup>\u00a0and the 135th<\/sup>, was to provide infantry contact, artillery counter attack, and artillery adjustment planes throughout the day on September 12, 1918 and to \u201coperate in the areas occupied by the divisions to which they are assigned,\u201d; additionally the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero was to \u201cfurnish one Artillery plane to work with the 8th<\/sup> Howitzer Battery. . . .\u201d69<\/a>\u00a0In other words, they were to fly over the front lines to gather and report information on the location of troops of the 1st<\/sup>\u00a0Division as they advanced, while also working with them in aiming artillery. It had been hoped that the St. Mihiel attack could begin before the autumn rains, but this was not the case, and flying was undertaken in terrible weather with a low ceiling and strong winds.<\/p>\n

Jensen\u2019s log book shows him to have flown three missions, type(s) unspecified, on September 12, 1918. Rex\u2019s activity with observer Gallagher was perhaps similar. The next day\u2014the day Parrish reported to the 8th<\/sup> Aero\u2014Rex and Gallagher set out on a mission; they did not return and were listed in the squadron history as missing in action.70<\/a><\/p>\n

Rex\u2019s name appeared on the official casualty list published October 15, 1918, where he is reported as missing in action; Gallagher was listed as missing in action on the preceding day\u2019s casualty list.71<\/a> In November, Winant wrote to Gallagher\u2019s family to report that both pilot and observer had been killed in action, but in December 1918 word was received from William Richards Castle, Jr., of the American Red Cross that Rex was a prisoner of war\u2014this was, sadly, an error.72<\/a>\u00a0In mid-February 1919,\u00a0The Pennsylvania Gazette<\/i> (the weekly magazine of the University of Pennsylvania) reported, accurately, that Rex had died of wounds in hospital at Bruville.73<\/a><\/p>\n

The following month the same magazine published a letter from Graham Irwin Lynch, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus, with \u201cThe first authentic news concerning the death of Hilary B. Rex.\u201d74<\/a>\u00a0Lynch had served as armament officer with the 8th<\/sup> Aero from mid-August 1918 through early 1919.75<\/a>\u00a0His account is worth citing\u00a0in extenso<\/i>:<\/p>\n

On the morning of September 13th<\/sup>, about 6 o\u2019clock, Rex left the field on a mission over the \u201cLines.\u201d He and his observer were flying what is called the infantry contact plane, this being considered exceptionally dangerous work, due to the fact that it must be done at comparatively low altitude, thus placed under heavy machine gun fire from the ground. A heavy windstorm and occasional rains also added considerably to the peril of flying. Similar flying was done the day before,\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. but each time they left they were able to return safely and each time accomplished very successful missions. Even up until some time after they left the field on the morning of the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0they wirelessed back valuable information.<\/p>\n

But exactly what happened no one knows, except that they never came back. After it was realized that they never would return a searching party was sent out to gather all information possible, but their efforts met with but little success. A plane of the same type they had been flying was found in \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land,\u201d but it had been destroyed to such an extent that the serial number of the plane could not be thoroughly distinguished. It was believed, however, that this was their plane and it was reported as having been brought down in flames by an enemy aircraft. It was learned later that both pilot and observer were killed and had been buried by a company of infantry, but the exact location of their graves has never been found.<\/p>\n

A few weeks before the signing of the armistice a note was dropped on a nearby airdrome by a German aviator, giving the names of American aviators who had been killed on the German side of the lines, and among them was the name of Lieutenant Rex.<\/p>\n

A document<\/a> dated October 11, 1918, from the records office of the Royal Saxon Ministry of War in Dresden verified Rex\u2019s death\u2014its contents were apparently transmitted to those in the U.S. by early 1919, assuming it is the source for the information in the February 14, 1919, Pennsylvania Gazette<\/i> mentioned above.76<\/a> It states the Rex, shot in the abdomen, died on September 19, 1918, in a field hospital in Bruville and was buried in the cemetery there. American records indicate that observer Gallagher died on the day he & Rex were shot down, and was buried initially in a French civilian cemetery at Mars-la-Tour, which was then about six miles inside German lines.77<\/a><\/p>\n

In May 1919 the bodies of both men were reinterred temporarily in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery at Thiaucourt and then, in August of 1922, they were given their final resting places at that same cemetery.78<\/a><\/p>\n

mrsmcq May 4, 2023<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Notes<\/h3>\n
\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex\u2019s place and date of birth are taken from Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Hilary Baker Rex. His place and date of death are taken from Todesnachweis des Rex.\u00a0 The photo is take from \u201cLieutenant Rex\u2019s Grave Not Found.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0On the Rex family see Schutte, \u201cGeorge Rex (1682-1772) of Germantown, Pennsylvania\u201d; and the account provided on pp. 1\u20132 of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, \u201cCollection 3003: Rex Family Papers.\u201d And see documents available at Ancestry.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cObituary: Walter E. Rex.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Tatman, \u201cRex, Hilary Baker (d. WWI) Architect\u201d; \u201cNiagara \u2018Rookies\u2019 Start in Training.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGround School Graduations [for September 1, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for October 1, 1917. (Rex has misdated this entry; other sources make it clear that the\u00a0Carmania<\/i>\u00a0docked at Liverpool on October 2, 1917.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for October 2, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for October 3, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for October 11, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for October 21, 1917. For more extensive accounts of these events, see\u00a0War Birds<\/i>, entry for October 22, 1917, and the diaries of Barksdale, Deetjen, Grider, and Foss from around this time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, has this move occurring on November 1, 1917; other documents make it clear that the cadets went to Grantham on November 3, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for November 8, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ludwig, diary entry for November 19, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for November 8, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

16<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entries for November 8 and 17, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Read, letter of November 10, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for November 27, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Foss\u2019s list of \u201cCadets of Italian Detachment Posted Dec 3rd\u201d in Foss, Papers; and \u201cGround School Graduations [for September 1, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

20<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0On the planes used at 50, see Philpott,\u00a0The Birth of the Royal Air Force<\/i>, p. 408.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

21<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c50 Squadron (home defense), location of B flight, December 1917-January 1918\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for December 5, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

23<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entries for December 16, 1917, and January 6, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

24<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for January 13, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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25<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for December 6, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

26<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0H. A. Jones,\u00a0The War in the Air<\/i>, vol. 5, p. 104.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

27<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for December 22, 1917, and\u00a0passim<\/i>. I believe Garside was at this time serving as an observer with No. 50 Squadron.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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28<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex. World War I Diary, entry for January 30, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

29<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Ibid<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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30<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for February 28, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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31<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for February 9, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

32<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex gives the plane\u2019s serial number as \u201c9993\u201d in his pilot\u2019s flying log book. Robertson,\u00a0Military Aircraft Serials 1878\u20131987<\/i>, indicates that both 9993 and B9993 were B.E.2c\u2019s. Pilots were sometimes casual about providing letter prefixes, so Rex may have been flying either 9993 or B9993. Palmer\u2019s and Benson\u2019s logbook also record plane \u201c9993″ as a B.E.2e rather than as a B.E.2c Possibly the plane they flew was built as a B.E2c but modified to be a B.E.2e. Information on Rex\u2019s flying in what follows is taken from his pilot\u2019s flying log book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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33<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for February 9, 1918. On MacIlwraith, see The National Archives (United Kingdom),\u00a0Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918\u20131919<\/i>, record for MacIlwraith.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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34<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for February 9, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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35<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for February 18, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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36<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for February 21, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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37<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for March 7, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

38<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex World War I Diary, entry for March 21, 1918; his pilot\u2019s flying log book records his height test on March 17, 1918 in B4009, which he, in contrast to Robertson,\u00a0British Military Aircraft Serials 1878\u20131987<\/i>, designates a B.E.2d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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39<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex. World War I Diary, entry for April 15, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

40<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

41<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 874-S, dated April 8, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

42<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 726-S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

43<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 955-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

44<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 1303-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

45<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for May 27, 1918. On Auld, see \u201cFashionable and Personal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

46<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for May 27, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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47<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for May 27, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

48<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ibid<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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49<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, Pilot\u2019s flying log book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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50<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 6, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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51<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McAndrew, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 205.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

52<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 6, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

53<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 6, 1918. Rex refers to May 30, 1918, as \u201cMemorial day\u201d; this designation was in common use at this time, although the name was not officially changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day until much later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

54<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rex, Pilot\u2019s flying log book, and Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 6, 1918. ,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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55<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 9, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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56<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 16, 1918; Rex, R.F.C. Training Transfer Card..<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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57<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 16, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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58<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 26, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

59<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex calculated his accumulated solo hours at Marske as totalling 7 hours and 35 minutes, but it appears he shortchanged himself. When I add up his individual flight times, I get 9.5 hours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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60<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for June 30, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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61<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Rex, World War I Diary, entry for July 3, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

62<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Jeffords,\u00a0Observers and Navigators<\/i>, p. 369.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

63<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[Biddle?], Special Orders No. 109.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

64<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d pp. 140\u201341.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

65<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See the brief \u201cHistory of Eighth Aero Squadron (Observation)\u201d on pp. 110\u201312 of \u201c8th Aero squadron.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

66<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHistory of Eighth Aero Squadron (Observation),\u201d p. 110.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

67<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for William Francis Gallagher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

68<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 116; this is part of the \u201cReport on Operations against the St. Mihiel Salient\u201d submitted by Winant, which is also reproduced on pp. 689-91 of Maurer,\u00a0The U.S. Air Service in World War I<\/i>, vol. 3. Unfortunately operations reports that might provide details of individual flights appear not to have been preserved; they are not, for example, in Gorrell C.14. Also unfortunately, the 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero, unlike the 50th<\/sup>\u00a0and 135th<\/sup>, did not find a dedicated chronicler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

69<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Maurer,\u00a0The U.S. Air Service in World War I<\/i>, vol. 3, p. 166.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

70<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d pp. 142 and 148.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

71<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAmericans Killed and Wounded on the French Front,\u201d (Oct 15, 1918, p. 8); \u201cAmericans Killed and Wounded on the French Front,\u201d (October 14, 1918).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

72<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See newspaper clippings included in Ancestry.com,\u00a0Pennsylvania, WWI Veterans Service and Compensation Files<\/i>, record for Hilary B Rex. I should note that Castle\u2019s cable, as cited in the December 5, 1918, newspaper clipping, states that Rex was shot down on September 12, 1918; this date appears in some subsequent reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

73<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSix More on Roll of Honor.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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74<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLieutenant Rex\u2019s Grave Not Found.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

75<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 140, and Ancestry.com,\u00a0Pennsylvania, WWI Veterans Service and Compensation Files<\/i>, record for Graham Irwin Lynch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

76<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 The document, \u201cTodesnachseis Rex,\u201d is among the papers in \u201cCollection 3003: Rex Family Papers\u201d at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

77<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGallagher, William F.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

78<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGallahger, William F.\u201d and \u201cRex, Hilary B.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Philadelphia, October 13, 1893 \u2013 Bruville, France, September 19, 1918)1 Oxford & Grantham\u00a0\u272f\u00a0No. 50 H.D. Squadron\u00a0\u272f\u00a05 T.D.S.\u00a0\u272f\u00a05 T.S. Wyton\u00a0\u272f\u00a0Marske & Chattis Hill\u00a0\u272f\u00a0France One of Hilary Baker Rex\u2019s ancestors was German-born farmer and blacksmith Hans J\u00fcrg R\u00fcger, who settled in Chestnut Hill (now part of northwest Philadelphia) in the early part of the eighteenth century; the … Continue reading “Hilary Baker Rex”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8055,"parent":30,"menu_order":109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7828","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7828"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8081,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7828\/revisions\/8081"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}