Jerry Pentland and great courage 100 years ago

100 years ago this year, a man with a link to Blackhall in Termonfeckin was awarded the Military Cross for outstanding service during the course of World War 1.

Alexander Augustus Norman Dudley “Jerry” Pentland (right) was a grandson of George Pentland of Blackhall but had lived in Australia all his life.

He was born in Maitland, New South Wales, on 5 August 1894. His father was Alexander, from Blackhall, and his mother Annie Norma (née Farquhar) was Scottish.

He went to school in Sydney and when the Great war came, his father, a physician, joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) .

Jerry joined the Australian Imperial Force in 1915, and saw action at Gallipoli before joining the Royal Flying Corps and became a flying ace.

In January 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty”, involving an attack behind enemy lines.

After the war, he went on to enjoy a career in the air, flying around the goldfields of New Guinea before joining Australian National Airways.

When the Second World War came, he was back in action and became a squadron leader in the South West Pacific.

He died in 1983 at the age of 89. I wonder did he ever visit Termonfeckin?