HILL, Cedric Waters
| Service Number: | Officer |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 3 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Last Unit: | Royal Flying Corps |
| Born: | Maryvale Station, near Warwick, Queensland, Australia, 3 April 1891 |
| Home Town: | Warwick, Southern Downs, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Brisbane Grammar School, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Shearing-Machinery Maintenance |
| Died: | Windsor, Berkshire, England, 5 March 1975, aged 83 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 3 Jul 1915: | Enlisted British Forces (All Conflicts), Second Lieutenant, Officer, Royal Flying Corps |
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Help us honour Cedric Waters HILL's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Son of Edward Ormonde Waters HILL and Phillis HILL nee CLARK.
Served in both wars with the Royal Flying Corps.
War Ace
Promoted
The British Air Ministry has announced the promotion of Wing Commander C. W. Hill, of the Darling Downs, Queensland, to Group Captain.
Cedric Waters Hill made one of the most daring escapes as a prisoner in the last war. While serving as a lieutenant in the East he, with Lt. E. H. Jones, was captured and imprisoned in Turkey. They tried to escape, were discovered and their imprisonment made harder. Then they conceived an extraordinary idea for regaining their liberty. They knew the Turks, as oslems, held lunatics in awe, so they pretended to be attacked by insanity.
For weeks they pretended their madness was increasing. At times they took risks which might have ended in death or actual insanity.
Once they tried to hang themselves — and nearly did! The Turks were greatly mystified by the seances the two officers held with an Ouija board. Eventually they became convinced the men were stricken with a mental malady and set them free.
Their experiences — afterwards described in "The Road to Endor" — provided one of the most thrilling of stories from the last war.
After the war Hill joined the R.A.F.
In 1930 Hill, on leave, set out from England to attempt a record flight to Australia to visit his parents in the Darling Downs district. When two days ahead of Hinkler's time Hill crashed in the Dutch East Indies and was delayed some weeks.
After his return to England he was made a squadron-leader, and in June 1931, qualified in a specialist engineering course.
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