William Sidebottom

Who is William Sidebottom?

Lieutenant William Sidebottom was a World War I flying ace credited with fourteen aerial victories.

Sidebottom joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 11 October 1917. In 1918, he was assigned to 203 Squadron as a Sopwith Camel pilot. He scored his first win on 16 June, sharing the destruction of a DFW two-seater reconnaissance plane with Lieutenant Edwin Hayne and three other pilots. He then accumulated a trickle of victories through 29 October 1918, sharing in the destruction of two reconnaissance planes with Captain Leonard Henry Rochford and the midair burning of another with Captain Arthur Whealy. Sidebottom's final toll was the destruction of seven enemy airplanes, with five of those wins shared; seven driven down out of control, including two shared triumphs.