Group Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees VC OBE MC AFC RAF (31 July 1884 – 28 September 1955) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
The son of an army officer, Rees was born in Plas Llanwnda, Castle Street, Caernarfon in 1884. Rees attended Eastbourne College before entering the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.
He was commissioned in 1903 with the Royal Garrison Artillery.
In 1912 he learned to fly at his own expense, receiving his pilot certificate in January 1913. By 1913-14 Rees was attached to the West African Frontier Force when he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps in August 1914, initially as an instructor at Upavon. He first saw action flying the Vickers Gunbus with No. 11 Squadron RFC in the summer of 1915, earning a reputation as an aggressive pilot and an above average marksman.
He was 31 years old and a Temporary Major in No. 32 Squadron RFC, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 1 July 1916 at Double Crassieurs, France, Major Rees, whilst on flying duties, sighted what he thought was a bombing party of our machines returning home, but were in fact enemy aircraft. Major Rees was attacked by one of them, but after a short encounter it disappeared, damaged. The others then attacked him at long range, but he dispersed them, seriously damaging two of the machines. He chased two others but was wounded in the thigh, temporarily losing control of his aircraft. He righted it and closed with the enemy, using up all his ammunition, firing at very close range. He then returned home, landing his aircraft safely.
Before winning his VC, Lionel Rees had been awarded the Military Cross for his actions, gazetted as follows. For conspicuous gallantry and skill on several occasions, notably the following: — On 21st September, 1915, when flying a machine with one machine gun, accompanied by Flight-Serjeant Hargreaves, he sighted a large German biplane with two machine guns 2,000 feet below him. He spiralled down and dived at the enemy, who, having the faster machine, manoeuvred to get him broadside on and then opened heavy fire. Despite this, Captain Rees pressed his attack and apparently succeeded in hitting the enemy's engine, for the machine made a quick turn, glided some distance and finally fell just inside the German lines near Herbecourt.
On 28 July he attacked and drove down a hostile monoplane despite the main spar of his machine having been shot through and the rear spar shattered. On 31 August, accompanied by Flight-Sergeant James McKinley Hargreaves, he fought a German machine more powerful than his own for three-quarters of an hour, then returned for more ammunition and went out to the attack again, finally bringing the enemy's machine down apparently wrecked. By this time he had claimed 1 aircraft captured, 1 destroyed, 1 'forced to land' and 5 'driven down'.
For the remainder of hostilities Rees commanded the Air Fighting School based at Ayr. In 1919 he was honoured with the O.B.E. and in 1920 his home town of Caernarfon made him a Freeman of the Borough.
Rees retired from the RAF in 1931 with the rank of Group Captain.
When WWII broke out, Rees returned to the UK and once again joined the RAF as a Wing Commander and was posted to command an aerodrome in the Middle East.
In December 1942 Rees was invalided out of the RAF and returned to the Bahamas.
In 1947 aged 62, he met and married a young local girl and they had three children, prior to his death in 1955 from leukemia.