In one of Greg’s albums is a photograph that has the caption “42 Squadron R.A.F. (Abscon) Nov 1918”. The date is quite clear. It is also quite wrong. 42 Squadron wasn’t at Abscon in November 1918.
42 Squadron RAF at Château Lantier, Abscon
How do we know that the location is right and the date wrong, and not vice versa?
Well, first, we know that the location – Abscon – is correct. This is because the background is recognisably Château Lantier, a former landmark of Abscon.
Seen in this postcard photograph, the grand Château Lantier stood sideways on to what is now la Place du Général de Gaulle in the centre of Abscon. In Greg’s photo, the officers and men of 42 Squadron are at the back of the château – the opposite side from that shown in the postcard.
The château was a little over ½ mile (1 km) from the airfield. But it would have been familiar to the squadron. It was after all in the middle of the aerodrome’s ‘home town’. And according to Anciens Aérodromes, some of the squadron’s officers were accommodated there. Today, the building is no more. Its site is now occupied by the town hall and various other buildings.
January 1919, not November 1918
Secondly, we know that the date in the caption of the photograph can’t be right. The squadron wasn’t at Abscon in November 1918. They were at Ascq at the start of November, and they moved to Marquain on Armistice Day. Later, on 25 November 1918, they moved again to Aulnoy, near Valenciennes:
Greg in the Frame
Greg is in the photograph, near the middle in the fourth row up:
We know that Greg came to Abscon from Saultain on New Year’s Day 1919, in what was his last flight. He would be gone before the end of the month. So the photograph – Greg’s last group photo – must have been taken in January 1919.
Possibly the mistake in the date arose because of the similarities with a ‘B’ Flight group photograph at Ascq that was definitely taken in November: