W E Johns was the creator of one of the most popular figures in children’s fiction: the pilot Biggles, hero of no fewer than 102 books (Biggles starts off in biplanes and ends up flying jets in the 1960s). Johns had fought at Gallipoli in 1915, aged 22. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, and while training wrote off three aircraft in three days, through no fault of his own (it has been suggested that Johns may have destroyed 10 British aircraft in training, which would have qualified him as a German ‘Ace’).
He became a bomber pilot in what was now the Royal Air Force in July 1918, and was shot down in September. His observer was killed and Johns, who somehow survived his goggles being shot to pieces, was wounded in the leg, and only narrowly escaped execution by firing squad. After the November Armistice, he returned to his family – who thought he was dead – on Christmas Day.
Johns became an RAF recruiting officer, and in 1923, in the Covent Garden office, interviewed a man called John Hume Ross who wanted to enlist as a mechanic. Johns quickly decided Ross was a ‘suspicious character’. He was in poor health, had no identification, no references, and was clearly trying to enlist under an assumed name; Johns rejected him. ’Ross’, however, was actually one of the most famous men in the world: T E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence was tired of his fame, and wanted to hide in the RAF. For many years, it was assumed that Lawrence had managed to fool everyone when enlisting, but in fact he had prepared his admission into the RAF by clearing it with Air Marshall Sir Hugh Trenchard, asking to enlist ‘in the ranks, of course. . . the newspapers used to run after me and I like being private’. Trenchard agreed, but wondered ‘whether it could be kept secret’.
When Lawrence arrived to sign up, he was supposed to be met by a chap called Dexter, who was to sign him up ‘no questions asked’. Unfortunately, he got Johns, whose rejection was quickly overruled: a message arrived, signed, says Johns, by ‘a very high authority, ordering his enlistment’. Thus Lawrence of Arabia became John Hume Ross, Aircraftman Second Class (A/C2) No. 352087.
What Happened Next
As Trenchard guessed, the newspapers found out. Lawrence was discharged, then re-enlisted in the tank corps, as T E Shaw. He lasted two years, then got back into the RAF after threatening to kill himself. At every stage he was helped by his many admirers, ranging from the socialist George Bernard Shaw to old imperialists such as John Buchan. Lawrence left the RAF in 1935, and was killed a few weeks later, in a motorcycle crash. Johns became a hugely successful novelist and has been bizarrely caricatured – by people who have never read the books – as a reactionary who trivializes war. In fact, Johns portrays aerial combat as a brutal business, and makes clear that everyone should be treated the same, regardless of creed or colour; Biggles speaks Hindi and despises racism. In 1940, Johns also created a heroine, Worrals of the WAAF, a female equivalent of Biggles who takes no sexist nonsense from men, and features in 11 novels.