Hero pilot pyjamas
am on December 3, 1897, but moved to Sutton Coldfield in 1902, where his father, Herbert, was headmaster at Bishop Vesey School. He held the top job from 1902 until 1926.
Young Jerrard went on to attend Oundle School, in Northamptonshire, then Birmingham University.
While at university, he volunteered to join the Army and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 5th Battalion of the South Staffordshire (Territorial) Regiment.
He was sent to France in early 1916, but the mud-splattered stalemate of trench warfare did not provide the adrenaline rush the young soldier craved.
Those strange, flimsy craft in the grey sky above looked much more appealing, despite the well-documented dangers.
Jerrard transferred to 66 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, and did his training in England becoming a fully- fledged pilot in June 1917. He did not have to wait long for a taste of action – or gain his first scars of battle. On one of his first sorties over France, Jerrard became separated from the rest of his patrol. Descending to regain his bearings, he chanced upon a German convoy which he blasted with machine gun fire before embankment.
He suffered a broken jaw and nose and, after recovering from his injuries, was sent to fight in Italy.
Jerrard certainly filled his boots in the new theatre of war.
On February 27, 1918, he shot down crashing into an a German “Berg” scout plane. In early March, he downed an enemy observation balloon and, just a week later, two more Berg scout planes.
With his aerial skills rapidly improving, Jerrard soon registered seven kills, making him an “ace”.
Then came the VC-winning heroics of March 30. King George V presented Jerrard with his VC at Buckingham Palace in April, 1919. A year later, Lord Dartmouth presented the amazing pilot with a “massive silver-gilt rosebowl”, ten inches high and weighing 10lb, during a Territorial Force Association meeting.
A newspaper report stated: “Lord Dartmouth recounted the circumstances under which Jerrard had won the medal, declaring the story ‘almost read like a fairy-tale’.
“He added that he hoped Jerrard would return to full health and ‘would enjoy the honour which he had won and to realise to the end of his life how fully they appreciated all that he had done for his country’. ”
That inscription on the bowl reads: “To Lieutenant Alan Jerrard VC, the first member of the Staffordshire Territorial Force to win the honour. In recognition of a great service and in appreciation of a very gallant action.”
It was auctioned in 2012, realising close to £10,000.
Jerrard, who also saw action in Russia in 1919, died at his Lyme Regis, Dorset, home on May 14, 1968. His haul of medals, which also includes the Bronze Medal of Military Valour, is on display at the Imperial War Museum.
Jerrard’s exploits feature on the Staffords’ 69ft-long memorial canvas, a lost artwork that Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse of The Chase Project military research group are attempting to locate. If you know of its whereabouts, contact Mike Lockley on 0121 236 3366.