Major Selden Herbert Long DSO MC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selden_Long

Major Selden Herbert Long DSO MC (6 October 1895 - 12 December 1952), was an English flying ace during the First World War. He was credited with nine confirmed aerial victories. He was also noted for the audacity of his trench strafing missions–an early form of close air support.

Captain Long was born in Aldershot, Hampshire in 1895 and is believed to have been the son of Major General Sidney Selden Long.

Captain Long joined the Army and was commissioned into the Durham Light Infantry before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps.

During the First World War he served as a fighter pilot with No 24 Squadron on the Western Front, shooting down nine German aircraft between 1915 and March 1917.

Captain Long was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in September 1915, and the DSO in 1917.

After the First World War, he published a memoir, Into the Blue (1920) and a study, Navigational Wireless (1927).