Van Dyke Fernald

Lieutenant Van Dyke Fernald was a British officer of the Royal Air Force who died during the First World War.
He was born on 2 August 1897, in San Francisco, California the son of dramatist and author Chester Bailey and Josephine Fernald (née Harker), of Boston and Berkeley, respectively. Fernald went to Trinity College, Oxford, and was naturalized in January 1916,The London Gazette (29463), p. 1389. 4 February 1916. Retrieved 12 January 2013. at the expense of his American citizenship, so as to join the British Army.Flight International, Volume 10, Issue 2, p. 1122 His family had been resident in England for some time.The Deseret News, 23 July 1917, p. 12.
Fernald, who had belonged to his university's Officer Training Corps, was gazetted in July 1916, in the 3rd Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), as a member of the Special Reserve of Officers.The London Gazette (29655), p. 6733. Retrieved 12 January 2013. He later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on attachment, serving on the Western Front for about six months as an observer. 
On qualifying as a pilot, Fernald went to Italy, where he flew Bristol F2Bs under the aegis of the 139th Squadron. He died on 23 July 1918, reportedly in Austrian captivity, after the completion of a reconnaissance mission. His obituary said that it was believed that he and his observer, Lieutenant Watkins, had chosen to remain in the area in an attempt to engineer an encounter with Austrian aircraft.
He is buried in Tezze British Cemetery.
==Notes==
==References==
*Fernald, Van Dyke, cwgc.org. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
Category:1897 births
Category:1918 deaths
Category:American military personnel
Category:British military personnel
Category:British people of American descent
Category:Buried in Italy
Category:Lieutenants