Ronald T. Mark

Lieutenant Ronald Turnbull Mark (born 1898, date of death unknown) was a World War I flying ace credited with 14 aerial victories.

World War I service
Mark flew Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5as for 24 Squadron on the Western Front. He had joined them in January 1918. At 0830 hours on 18 February 1918, he teamed with Horace Barton and Andrew Cowper to drive a German DFW two-seater reconnaissance airplane down out of control. He scored his second win that same day, driving a Pfalz D.III fighter down out of control. The next morning, ten minutes combat saw Mark help Cowper, Reuben Hammersley, and Peter MacDougall burn another DFW recce machine and destroy a Rumpler two-seater. On the 26th, Mark teamed with Ian Donald Roy McDonald, Herbert Richardson, and four other British pilots to destroy a new Fokker Dr.I triplane fighter. Ronald Mark was now an ace. By checking internal evidence to Mark's victory list, these seem to have been the days described in the citation for his Military Cross:

"...He showed great determination and resource during operations in attacking enemy troops and transport with machine gun fire. Observing some enemy transport in a village, he attacked it repeatedly and caused it to stampede. While on an offensive patrol he attacked and destroyed an enemy two-seater machine. He has destroyed one other enemy machine and driven down others out of control."

On 11 March, Mark, Herbert Richardson, Alfred John Brown, and two other pilots drove down a two-seater. Two days later, Mark repeated the feat, but single-handed. Two days after that, he teamed with Richardson and Cowper to destroy an observation plane. By 3 May, he had run his string to 14, sharing a victory each with Conway Farrell and Cyril Lowe. On 21 May, he took off on the derring-do sortie described as justification for a second award of the Military Cross:

"...This officer and another pilot were escorting a formation of machines engaged on bombing a village, when seven enemy scouts attacked the bombers. They both attacked these scouts, but at the outset the other pilot's machine was set on fire, and 2nd Lt. Mark's right-hand top plane broke. During the fight that ensued each came to the rescue of the other. 2nd Lt. Mark first caused the other pilot's pursuer to break off his attack, and then the other pilot shot down the scout attacking 2nd Lt. Mark. The action of both these officers, in practically immanoeuvrable machines, in coming to the rescue of each other in turn showed courage and self-sacrifice of a very high order." Unmentioned is the finale; Mark's crashlanding of his damaged plane set it afire. Somehow Mark survived unscathed.

World War II service and beyond
On 2 April 1940, Ronald Turnbull Mark was granted a commission as Pilot Officer on probation "for the duration of hostilities". Exactly one year later, he was confirmed in his rank.

Ronald Turnbull Mark is mentioned only once more in the official records, in connection with a family estate, on 4 December 1953.