Van Dyke Fernald was born on August 2, 1897 in San Francisco, California his parents were Josephine Harker and Chester Bailey Fernald, a popular author and dramatist. From the London Review of Books: Lieutenant Van Dyke Fernald, was shot down at Godega, near Conegliano,Italy, in July 1918. He may have accidentally broken formation – often a fatal mistake – but his fellow officers believed he had hung back deliberately at the end of a patrol in order to engage the enemy. His plane was either hit by anti-aircraft fire or attacked in the air – a letter dropped by the Austrians stated simply that he and his observer, 2nd Lieutenant William Watkins, had been niedergeschossen and were dead. Whether they were killed instantly or died of wounds is unclear. In October 1918 two periodicals devoted to the new art of aviation, the Aeroplane and Flight, reported that Fernald had ‘died as a prisoner in Austrian hands’. Major Billy Barker, a Canadian ace (whose exploits inspired Hemingway’s ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’), offered this: ‘Your son was a splendid pilot and full of dash, and I feel sure that whatever happened he put up a good show.’ The commanding officer, Colonel Lincoln, met Josephine in London, and told her that her son and Lieutenant Watkins had earlier finished their ‘stunt’ for the day, but had volunteered to go out again. Fernald had gone up to Trinity College, Oxford in October 1915, where he immediately joined the Officers’ Training Corps. Not much interested in his studies, he applied for a commission, stating in order his preferred branch of service – artillery, infantry, cavalry (but explicitly not the unglamorous Army Service Corps). In February 1916 he completed a short service attestation form, swore allegiance before a magistrate and was posted to ‘A’ Company, No. 2 Officer Cadet Battalion in Cambridge for 16 weeks’ training. He later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps where he flew as an observer in a Bristol F.2b Fighter. He spent six months on the Western Front with his pilot, Howard Redmayne Harker, and qualified as an observer. Fernald returned from the Western Front in June 1917, and began pilot training. His experience as an observer proved invaluable. He earned his wings that autumn, and in June 1918 was posted to Italy with the 34th Squadron of the newly formed Royal Air Force. He was shot down in July 1918.