Papers of Robert Alexander Little
MSS 182

Collection Description

This collection includes typescript notes, photocopies of biographical and military material and photographs relating to the World War 1 service of Captain Robert Alexander Little.

Administrative / Biographical history

Robert Alexander Little was born on 19 July 1895 at Hawthorn, Melbourne. He was educated at Scotch College and later joined the family business as a commercial traveller, living with his parents at Windsor. Rejected with hundreds of others for the four vacancies at Point Cook Military Flying School, and realising that it would take years before he could be trained in Australia, Little sailed for England on RMS Malwa in July 1915. At his own expense he paid for his flying training at Hendon, where he gained his civilian flying certificate on 27 October 1915.

On the 14 January 1916, he entered the Royal Naval Air Service as a Temporary Probationary Flight Sub-lieutenant, and posted to the Royal Naval Air Service Flying School at Eastchurch. His 2nd posting was at the Naval War Station Flight, Dover, Kent, prior to being posted to No. 1 Wing at Dunkirk, France in June 1916. The Admiralty created the R.N.A.S. squadrons for service on the Western Front, and in October 1916, Little was transferred to the new No. 8 Naval Fighter Squadron, which was equipped with Sopwith Pups. On 1 November, he scored his first aerial victory and by March 1917, he was credited with shooting down nine enemy aircraft. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant in April 1917.

Little was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, the Distinguished Service Cross and 2 Bars and the French Croix de Guerre with star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. In December 1917, he was mentioned in despatches and was promoted to Flight Commander in January 1918. In early August 1917, he was posted to Walmer on the Kent coast for a period of rest. In October he was attached to the Dover station, and in March 1918, he declined a desk job and volunteered to return to France where as Flight Commander with No. 3 Naval Fighter Squadron, flying a Sopwith Camel. On the 1 April 1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged to form the Royal Air Force. Little was promoted to Captain in the 203 Squadron Royal Air Force.

Little died at the age of 22 on the night of 27 May 1918, when he went up alone from Ezil le Hamel to intercept enemy bombers in the dark. He was fatally wounded in the groin and safely crash-landed his plane near Norviz, where he was found next morning. He was buried in the village cemetery at Norviz and subsequently in Wavans British Cemetery, France. Little is credited with destroying forty-seven enemy aircraft. He was survived by his wife and son.

References:
The diggers : makers of the Australian military tradition : lives from the Australian dictionary of biography, selected and condensed by Chris Coulthard-Clark (1993), p. 223-225
Heroic Australian air stories, by Terry Gwynn-Jones (1981), p. 12-34

Acquisition Details

Scope and Content

This collection includes typescript notes, photocopies of biographical and military material and photographs collected by Mrs F. Vera Brettell relating to the life of Captain Robert Alexander Little who served with the Royal Naval Air Service in Squadrons 1, 8 and 3, and with the Royal Air Force in Squadron 203 during World War I.

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