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About William Meade Lindsley Fiske, III
William Meade Lindsley Fiske
William Meade Lindsley "Billy" Fiske III (4 June 1911 – 17 August 1940) was the 1928 and 1932 Olympic champion bobsled driver and, following Jimmy Davies, was one of the first American pilots killed in action in World War II. At the time Fiske was serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He was one of 11 American pilots who flew with RAF Fighter Command between 10 July and 31 October 1940, thereby qualifying for the Battle of Britain clasp to the 1939–45 campaign star.
Between his Olympic career and his military service Fiske was instrumental in the early development of the Aspen ski resort. He and a partner built the first ski lift and lodge in the remote Colorado mountain town. Others would continue their work after the war.
Early life
Fiske was born in New York in 1911, the son of Beulah and William Fiske, a New England banking magnate. He attended school in Chicago, and then went to school in France in 1924, where he discovered the sport of bobsled at the age of 16. Fiske attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1928 where he studied Economics and History.
In 1936 Ted Ryan, an heir of Thomas Fortune Ryan, brought some photographs of mountains near Aspen, Colorado, to Fiske. They had been given to Ryan by a man trying to interest him in investing in a mining claim. Fiske and Ryan, however, saw in them ideal terrain for downhill skiing, and the ski resort the pair had been talking about establishing in the United States, similar to those in the Alps where Fiske had competed in the Olympics.
Fiske and Ryan visited Aspen, then a faded mining town decades removed from its boomtown years in the 1880s. Many of the abandoned properties around town were available for very low prices. Fiske bought an option on one, and he and Ryan had blueprints drawn up for a ski lodge. For the next season, they hired guides, including Swiss ski champion André Roch, then studying at Reed College in Oregon. The lodge opened at the end of 1937, and a few weeks later the Boat Tow, an early ski lift, opened. These events are considered the beginning of skiing in Aspen.
Fiske then worked at the London office of Dillon, Reed & Co, the New York bankers. On 8 September 1938, Fiske married Rose Bingham, Countess of Warwick, in Maidenhead.
Bobsled career
As driver of the first five-man U.S. Bobsled team to win the Olympics, Fiske became the youngest gold medalist in any winter sport (until eclipsed by Toni Nieminen in 1992), aged just 16 years at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His American team-mates were Geoffrey Mason, Nion Tucker, Clifford Grey and Richard Parke.
Fiske competed again at the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, USA, where he was given the honour of carrying the flag for the United States at the opening ceremony. The format of the race was altered to a four-man team, but again Fiske and his team-mates, Clifford Grey, Eddie Eagan, and Jay O'Brien took gold.
Olympic medal record
Men's bobsleigh Competitor for the United States Gold 1928 St. Moritz Five-man Gold 1932 Lake Placid Four-man
Fiske was invited, but declined to lead the bobsled team in the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany. It is believed by some that this decision was due to his disagreeing with the politics in Germany at the time, which may also explain his later decision to join the War-effort in 1940. Fiske was also a Cresta Champion, and was well known for jumps from the Badrutt's Palace Hotel's bar chandelier in St. Moritz.
World War II
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Fiske was recalled to the New York offices of Dillon, Reed & Co, but on 30 August 1939 he returned to England aboard the Aquitania accompanying a bank colleague who was also a member of No. 601 (County of London) Auxiliary Air Force Squadron. Fiske was one of seven US aircrew personnel who fought in the Battle of Britain, although due to the neutrality of the United States, Fiske pretended to be a Canadian. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was promoted to the rank of Pilot Officer on 23 March 1940.
Fiske undertook his flying training at No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire, before moving to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, for advanced flying training. As an American citizen, he "duly pledged his life and loyalty to the king, George VI," and was formally admitted into the RAF. In his diary, a joyous Fiske wrote, "I believe I can lay claim to being the first U.S. citizen to join the RAF in England after the outbreak of hostilities."
On 12 July 1940, Fiske joined No. 601 Squadron RAF at RAF Tangmere, West Sussex, the so-called "Millionaires' Squadron", carrying out his first sorties with the squadron on 20 July, when he flew two patrols. On 16 August 1940, in the midst of the Battle of Britain, No. 601 Squadron RAF were scrambled to intercept a squadron of German dive-bombers. Fiske was flying a Hawker Hurricane - code number P3358. The Squadron destroyed eight Junkers Ju 87 Stukas, but after just 15 minutes of flying time, a German gunner put a bullet through Fiske’s fuel tank.
With his aircraft badly damaged and his hands and ankles burnt, instead of bailing out, Fiske nursed his Hurricane fighter home, gliding over a hedgerow to the airfield. Although he landed his aircraft safely back at Tangmere, Fiske had to be extracted from the aircraft by ambulance attendants. Shortly after, his fuel tank exploded. Fiske was taken to Royal West Sussex Hospital in Chichester for treatment, but he died 48 hours later from surgical shock. Fiske was 29 years old.
Fiske's funeral took place on 20 August 1940. The six members of Tangmere's ground staff carried Fiske to his final resting place. As his coffin, covered in the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes, was borne on a bier to Boxgrove Priory Church and buried.
Of Fiske's role in the Battle of Britain, Bill Bond, founder of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, wrote: “ ...although Billy made several sorties he didn't shoot anything down, so that his impact on the battle in that respect was negligible, but he is most definitely still very much a hero in our book. ” Fiske's Flight Commander, Sir Archibald Hope, added: “ Unquestionably Billy Fiske was the best pilot I've ever known. It was unbelievable how good he was. He picked up so fast it wasn't true. He'd flown a bit before, but he was a natural as a fighter pilot. He was also terribly nice and extraordinarily modest, and fitted into the squadron very well.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Fiske
William M.L. "Billy" Fiske from Brooklyn, New York, was an American socialite who dabbled in banking and movie production, producing _White Heat (1934)_. However, he was more famous for the two gold medals he won at consecutive Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1932, as the leader of the bobsled team. When World War Two began, he was living in England, married to a British society beauty. Thanks to his contacts he was able to pull strings to join the Royal Air Force, in defiance of the US Neutrality Act, by posing as a Canadian. He flew Hurricane fighters with the auxiliary 601 Squadron in the Battle of Britain, before being shot down on 16 August 1940. He was burned and died from shock two days later.
Source:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0279967/bio
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via sister Beulah Heaton (born Fiske) by SmartCopy: Mar 17 2015, 2:39:50 UTC
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees by SmartCopy: Mar 17 2015, 2:42:12 UTC
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via wife Rose Fiske (born Bingham) by SmartCopy: Mar 17 2015, 2:47:43 UTC
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William Meade Lindsley Fiske, III's Timeline
| 1911 |
June 11, 1911
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Brooklyn, New York, United States
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| 1940 |
August 18, 1940
Age 29
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Royal West Sussex Hospital, Chinchester, England (United Kingdom)
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| ???? |
St. Mary and St. Blaise Church, Boxgrove, West Sussex, England (United Kingdom)
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