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Original manuscript by Eric Betts comprising 191pp. of typed verse (containing 111 poems) in black and red, all with title, date and the location composed, publication details (if published), and other contextual details, with occasional ink manuscript annotations and one original pencil illustration, plus 22pp. contents/index, both typed and ink manuscript, to the front and rear. Housed in a 1930s oblong half faux-leather textured cloth binder, held with metal rods. 21 x 14cm. Signed by Betts and dated 1936 in ink to the front free endpaper. Business card for Betts loosely laid in. The binder with marking to the boards and wear to the board edges. The contents remain in very good order throughout, with just a touch of toning to page edges. A unique, fascinating, and frequently amusing collection of manuscript verse charting the entire career of the highly distinguished First World War flying ace and air reconnaissance photographer Air Vice Marshall Eric Bourne Coulter Betts CBE DSC DFC (1897-1971). Born in Dublin, Betts began his career in the Royal Naval Air Service, signing up a few days after his eighteenth birthday in 1915, during the early stages of the First World War. He went on to become a flying ace, credited with six aerial victories. These actions were, however, somewhat incidental to his more important occupation of undertaking long range photographic reconnaissance missions, documenting German naval bases and other sites, of which he was credited with more than twenty successful long range flights. For his achievements he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the French Croix de guerre with Palm, and the Distinguished Flying Cross, the citation for which praised him thus: "An observer officer of great skill who has carried out over 20 long-distance photographic reconnaissances during the past four months, and in conjunction with his pilot, has brought home about 1,000 photographs of enemy positions of inestimable value, in addition to destroying eight enemy machines". During the inter-war period, Betts held various commissions in Britain and Aden, subsequently commanding No. 101 (Bomber) Squadron RAF from December 1933, and was then was promoted to group captain, becoming the Deputy Director of War Organisation in April 1939. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was tasked with organising the delivery of British aircraft to beleaguered Poland; however, that nation was conquered by the Germans before the aircraft could be supplied. Between September 1939 and May 1940, he worked on the creation of sixteen war planning forecasts for logistics and personnel requirements for the RAF to fight the war, which turned out to be exceptionally accurate. By March 1943, he had been promoted to Air Vice-Marshall and served the remainder of the war (from 26th March) as Air Officer in Charge of Administration, Middle East Command, receiving a CBE in June 1943, and a mention in despatches on 1st January 1945. Following the war, Betts retained his rank, retiring in 1946, and died in County Cork in 1971. A typed note by Betts to the title page of the present work explains that "The original rhymes were lost in the Battle of Britain; this is an attempt to reconstruct them from various publications in which some of them have appeared - "Flying", "The Aeroplane", "The R.A.F. Quarterly", "The Hawk" and some local magazines -, from copies given to friends and from memory." Almost entirely written in the period 1915-1945, with locations including Dunkirk (1916), H.M.S. Pegasus (1920), Aden (1930-32), Air Ministry, London (1937-39), and Cairo (1942-1944), amongst others, Betts's verse provide a satirical take on his experiences in the R.A.F. throughout both world wars, focussing predominantly on airforce life (including specific flying incidents), the political and military situations to which he was witness, and people and places he encountered, as well as occasional forays into the slightly more fanciful. Betts often provid.
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