People Page

Not a deleted record

No images uploaded for this person yet

People Names and Dates


Full Name	William Meade Lindsley Fiske
AKA Full Name
People ID	675869
Title
First Name	William
AKA First Name
Nickname	Billy
Middle Name	Meade Lindsley
AKA Middle
Patronymic/Matronymic
Priorsurnames
Surname	Fiske
AKA Surname
Father's Surname	Fiske
Mother's Surname	Worden
Suffix	III
Gender	Male
Full Birth Date If Known	1911-06-04
Birth Year	1911
Birth Month	6
Birth Day	4
Full Death Date If Known	1940-08-17
Death Year	1940
Death Month	8
Death Day	17

Events, Dates and Places

Event	Date	Geo Top Level	Geo 2nd Level	Geo 3rd Level	Geo 4th Level
Birth	1911/06/04	USA	Illinois	Cook	Winnetka
Residence	1920	USA	Illinois	Cook	Chicago
Residence	1920	USA	California	Santa Barbara	Montecito
Departure	1930/03/20	France	Manche	Cherbourg-Octeville
Arrival	1930/03/25	USA	New York	New York	New York City (Manhattan)
Departure	1937/02/03	England	Hampshire	Southampton
Arrival	1937/02/08	USA	New York	New York	New York City (Manhattan)
Death	1940/08/17	England	West Sussex	Chichester	Chichester

Relationships

Relationship	Related To	Relative's People ID	Relative's Birth Year	Relative's Death Year
Son of	William Meade Lindsley Fiske	675884	1879	1940
Son of	Beulah Rexford Worden Fiske	675878	1886	1949
Brother of	Beulah Fiske Heaton Vollmer	675885	1907	1987
Brother in law of	Jennison Heaton	675879	1904	1971

Military Service

Rank If Known Or Highest Or Final Rank	Branch of Service	Beginning Date if Known	End Date if Known
Acting Pilot Officer	Royal Air Force	1940/03/23

Military Actions Served During


World War II

Interment, Inurnment or Memorialization Information


Cemetery	Saint Mary and Saint Blaise Church AKA Boxgrove Priory
Address	Church Lane
City/Town	Boxgrove
County/District	Chichester
State/Province	West Sussex
Postal/Zip Code	PO18 0ED
Country/Principality	England





Organization
Property Type
Has Marker	Yes
No Marker
Is Cenotaph
GPS/LatLong Coordinates
End of Interment Record	If there are additional interments or cenotaphs for this person they will appear below

Inscription Information

No inscriptions added for this person yet

Other Information

Biographical or other information about the person

https://mills-sfv.com/Genealogy/GLS/People/Text/675869.txt

Billy Fiske was one of at least two Americans in RAF service who died during the Battle of Britain. He was not terribly successful as a fighter pilot (no confirmed kills but two or three probables and a shared kill) but he is of significance as a secular American martyr to the cause of British freedom and resistance during World War II. He died at a time when the USA was officially neutral and Fiske had in fact broken US law by travelling to England and enlisting in the RAF.

The Hawker Hurricane Billy was flying was damaged in battle but he was able to make a belly landing at Tangmere. He was badly burned during the incident and died at St. Richard's (also known as St. Regis or as Royal West?) hospital the next day. If he had bailed out the plane would have been a total loss but his own chances for survival probably would have been much better. (The Hurricane was later repaired and put back into service; at that time there were an adequate number of fighters coming out of the factories but the real problem was pilots, who could not be churned out in factories, obviously).

There are several other memorials to Billy Fiske in England other than his grave marker. There is also one in New York. If I can get more information on the specific locations I will add them as cenotaphs.

For some reason there are several published sources that list his birthplace as Brooklyn, New York. I have no idea where this information came from. He may have lived in Brooklyn at some time (if so I haven't found when), but all the information I have found on him from public records (census, ship's passenger manifests, etc.) list his birthplace generically as the state of Illinois and more specifically as Chicago or Winnetka Illinois. I have gone with Winnetka as it is so specific that it is most likely correct. He may have told people he was born in Chicago because it required no explanation as versus having to explain to people where Winnetka was (in Cook County, Illinois, right next to Chicago).

His father was born in Brooklyn, so perhaps that is where the confusion has come about from.

Another thought has occurred to me about the incorrect information about his birthplace. I mentioned earlier that it was against U.S. law for Billy to travel to England and sign up for the RAF. I wonder if he gave the British authorities incorrect information about his birthplace on purpose to deflect any potential legal problems this might have caused him back in the States? I can envision the conversation as he's being arrested in the U.S. -- "That wasn't me in the RAF, that was some other Billy Fiske from New York!" In any event, that's a thought as to why so many published sources have his birthplace as Brooklyn rather than Chicago.

There is another good article about Billy at the website This Day in Aviation Dot Com, here is a link to the article.

Billy was part of two American bobsled teams that won gold medals in the Olympics, in 1928 and 1932. He could have participated in the 1936 Olympics but chose not to, perhaps because they were held in Germany and he was already becoming disenchanted with the Nazi regime.

Billy's father died of a heart attack in New York seven weeks after the death of his son, on 5 October 1940. I am sure losing his son had something to do with it. I'm still trying to figure out where his father is buried, the NY death records say Ferncliff but he doesn't show up on their website. Billy's mother Beulah Worden Fiske died in California nine years later, supposedly she is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. Billy also had a sister, Peggy Fiske Heaton Vollmer, I don't know where she's buried or inurned or whatever but I did gather enough information to create a record for her.

Billy was married in 1938 to Rose Bingham Greville, the former Countess of Warwick. She survived him and remarried in 1945 to Lieutenant Colonel John Charles Arthur Digby Lawson. Rose died in 1972 but I don't know much else about her.

One other interesting fact about Billy (though not a surprising one considering he was obviously into winter sports and his family was apparently quite wealthy) was that he was one of the first people to begin developing Aspen, Colorado as a ski resort in the 1930s. At this time Aspen was a washed up former mining town which had somehow managed to avoid becoming a ghost town. Billy and his friend and business associate Ted Ryan were able to buy some property quite cheaply and start turning it into a ski lodge.

The United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation also named a trophy after him, the Billy Fiske Memorial Trophy.

No keywords added for this person


Small notes (field in database 50 characters max)
Family Search ID	LZJY-H8N
Find A Grave 1	6146988
Famous per Find A Grave	Yes
Famous per Consensus	Yes
Find A Grave 2
Find A Grave 3
BillionGraves Record ID
Other websites	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Fiske
Record Entry Date	2020-01-22 17:25:22
Record Last Edit Date	2020-01-22 17:25:22

Contact Us

We're not set up yet to do direct edits on these records through the web interface. To contact us about this person (re: add or change information or for questions) or send photos or request a photo, click on the link below and modify the email address as instructed, then include your information or questions or attach a photo or photos to the email. If you wish to upload more than a few photos please contact us to make other arrangements to upload your photos. Also, depending on the size and quantity of images you attach to the email, some email servers may bounce your email as many email services limit total attachments per individual email to between 10 mbs and 50 mbs.

Also, do not change the Subject line in the email, it should prepopulate with the correct people ID for the page you are on, if the subject line is changed it may make it impossible for us to know what person you are emailing about.

Send us photos, request a photo, send updates or corrections

For information on contacting us or emailing or requesting photos, click here.


Main Page	Search Cemeteries	Search People	Search Events	Search Places	Logout