Army, Navy & Air Force
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Barry - John ..... born 1745 died 13th September 1803 ..... creator of the American navy and its traditions, he captured the British sloop Edward off Chesapeake Bay on 7th April 1776. This action was historical in that it was the FIRST capture of a foreign vessel by a commissioned American warship in which the enemy was forced to lower its flag to the Stars and Bars. His vessel, the brig Lexington, was the FIRST to carry the Continental flag to victory at sea
Bell - Donald Simpson - 2nd Lieutenant ..... FIRST professional footballer to enlist in November 1914 when he joined the 9th Battalion Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment ( later the Green Howards)
Beswick William ..... from Manchester, England, he was the FIRST Britain to join the US Navy during the war
Bishop - William Avery ..... born 1894 died 1956 ..... Canadian airman who was appointed the FIRST Canadian air marshal in 1939. He was the most successful allied 'ace' of the war and was officially credited with the destruction of 72 enemy aircraft. In 1917 he was awarded the VC for single-handedly downing 7 German planes
Blamey - Sir Thomas ..... born 1884 died 1951 ..... Australian soldier who was the FIRST Australian soldier to hold the rank of field marshal when appointed in 1950
Bradley - Omar Nelson ..... born 1893 died 1981 ..... American soldier who became the FIRST permanent chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1949 to 1953
Brashear - Carl ..... FIRST African-American to attain the rank of Master Chief in the elite diving section of the US Navy. He was also the FIRST amputee to return to active duty in the history of the American Navy - 1968
Butah – Captain Justin .....FIRST black officer in the Life Guards as Commander of the Sovereign’s Escort – 2000
*** C
Carmona - Corporal José Antonio ..... the FIRST transsexual in the Spanish armed forces when he became Maria del Mar after undergoing a sex change operation
Cordingley - Norman .....one of the R.A.F’s FIRST expert airborne radar officers
*** F
Fiske - Billy ..... toboggan gold medallist in the 1932 Olympics, he was the FIRST American airman to fly with the RAF (UK) in 1939. He took part in the historic Battle of Britain but was severely burned in 1940 when his plane exploded on landing at an airfield. He died soon afterwards aged just 29 years
*** H
Hamilton - Ian ….. the FIRST paratrooper in the Armed Forces to undergo a sex-change operation transforming him into a woman
Hayward - Colonel William ..... in World War 1 he trained the American army's FIRST black regiment - the 369th Infantry Regiment of Harlem which went on to win citations for valour. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and membership in the Légion d'Honneur
Highgate - Thomas James ..... on September 8th 1914 he became the FIRST soldier to be executed in the First World War for cowardice. He was pardoned in 2006 along with others who had been executed for their so-called cowardice
*** K
Kennedy Jim ..... FIRST and probably the last serviceman to be honoured at Burtonwood, near Warrington, England, when he was given full military honours, including a 21-gun salute, as he was laid to rest at Burtonwood Cemetery in December 2002
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Lillyman - Frank - Capt ..... FIRST allied serviceman to parachute into France
*** M
Miller - Doris "Dorie" ..... born 1919 died 1943 ..... he was born in Texas and whilst serving on a US Navy ship during the attack on Pearl Harbour he became the FIRST black American second-world-war hero. He carried wounded sailors to safety, moved his wounded captain to a safer position and then returned to man an anti-aircraft gun. He received the Navy Cross in 1942 but because of segregation was only promoted to the position of cook for third-class passengers from his previous position as a mess attendant. He died the following year when his ship was torpedoed. The Navy posthumously honoured him by naming a dining hall, a destroyer and a barracks after him
*** N
Napier - Gen.Sir Charles James ..… born 1782 died 1853 ..... Scottish soldier, conqueror of Sind, who introduced married quarters in the armed forces and was the FIRST British general to mention private soldiers in official dispatches
*** P
Pepys - Samuel ….. born 23rd February 1623 died 26th May 1703 ….. diarist and England's FIRST Secretary of the Admiralty. His celebrated diary ran from 1st January 1660, the year his wife died to 31st May 1669 when his eyesight failed him
Poole - Eric ..... the FIRST officer to be executed in the Great was when he was shot at dawn at Poppering in Belgium in 1916. He was pardoned in 2006 along with others who had been executed for their so-called cowardice
*** R
Rivero - Admiral Horacio ….. died 2000 ….. FIRST Puerto Rican and FIRST Hispanic American to become a four-star admiral
Robinson - Roscoe ….. died 1993 ….. FIRST black man to gain the rank of four-star general in the United States army. He was one of the FIRST group of black cadets to graduate from West Point in 1951 after President Truman desegregated the armed forces
*** S
Strange - Louis ….. Squadron Leader famed flier of WW1 who was the FIRST to command the Parachute Training School (PTS) pioneers of Britain's Airborne Forces in 1940 when Winston Churchill ordered that a force of 5000 be trained. By early 1941 men of No 11 Special Air Service Brigade were trained to operational readiness and forty of them, known as 'X' troop, carried out Britain's FIRST airborne operation - against the Tragino Viaduct in southern Italy. On 1st November 1941 the RAF assumed sole responsibility for parachute training
*** T
Tull - Walter Daniel ..... born 1888 died 1918 ..... the FIRST black officer in the British Army, having risen to the rank of Second Lieutenant during the First World War. He was the FIRST black outfield player in the top flight of the Football League and made his debut when he played for Tottenham Hotspur against Sunderland in September 1909. He was the FIRST black professional footballer to play in Latin America and in 1910 signed for Northampton Town and in 1914 was the FIRST Northampton Town player to volunteer for military service joining the 17th (1st Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. In May 1917 he became the FIRST black combat/infantry officer in the British Army and in 1918 was the FIRST black officer to lead white troops into battle. He was killed while leading a counter-attack against German positions during the Second Battle of the Somme on 25th March 1918
Tushkegee Airmen of WW2 ….. when President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009 it was the FIRST time that they had been invited to a president's inauguration
*** W
Warneford - Flight Sub-Lt R ..... of the RNAS. on June 6th 1915 he destroyed LZ37 by bombing it near Ghent in Belgium, becoming the FIRST pilot to shoot down an airship.