Allan John Lanman MBE AFC
Allan John Lanman MBE AFC
Allan John Lanman MBE AFC



Allan John Lanman



Awards and Decorations
Medal Group

Allan Lanman was born in Monmouthshire on 1st October 1874.  He first joined the Grenadier Guards on 14th September 1897 shortly afterwards transferring to the Royal Engineers.  When he joined the Engineers it was the Balloon Section that he operated with as Sapper 1679 and in the South African War of 1899-1902 he was a Lance Corporal in the Balloon Repair Factory.  His first award then was the South Africa Medal with the two clasps Cape Colony and S. Africa 1901.

On 19 December 1910 he married Temperance George of Crickhowell Brecon and went to live in Farnborough with his wife.

On 13th May 1912 he joined the new Royal Flying Corps as No 13 Sergeant Lanman in No 1 Squadron.  He took the Royal Aero Club Airship certificate No 9 to do so on 2nd July 1912, having previously taken the Royal Aero Club Aeronaut certificate No 23 earlier.  At Farnborough he helped operate HMA Beta and piloted it several times during the period May 1912 to November 1912. He then piloted HMA Delta up until WW1.  On 18th May 1914 he was promoted to Flight Sergeant and one month later on 30th June 1914 he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service as F660.

Allan John Lanman MBE AFC in the gondola of HMA Delta.

Allan John Lanman MBE AFC in the gondola of HMA Delta.

He gained his next award the 1914 star and Mons clasp when he was one of 195 men out of the 435 that were awarded the star alone.  It is named to F660 A Lanman CPO Mech 2 RNAS.  His next awards were the War and Victory medals with MiD named to WO1 A Lanman RNAS.  In this time he was also awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct medal and as he was in the RNAS at the time it was the Naval version he got.  It is named to F 660 Allan Lanman CPO 2nd Grade HMS Pembroke.

On April 1st 1918 the RFC And RNAS amalgamated to form the Royal Air Force and for his services in the Great War he was awarded the Air Force Cross, London Gazette 10th October 1919.  As he now continued with the Air Force he carried on as a training instructor and was rewarded with the Order of the British Empire (Member) Military 1st type, London Gazette 3rd June 1927.

He retired in 1930 and went to live in 14 Sutcliffe Avenue, Earley, Reading in Berkshire, he named the bungalow "Martlesham" recognising the RAF station he spent most of his time at until retirement.  He passed away in 1947 and was cremated at Reading Cemetery and Crematorium.  Allan and Temperance had no children and when his wife passed away in 1966 there were no relatives that I could find to further the research that I had done until then.

Summarising then Allan Lanman achieved medals from the Army, Navy and Air Force.  He was awarded An Order the MBE, gallantry awards the AFC and MiD, Campaign medals, South Africa, 1914 Star, War and Victory and a LS & GC, R Aero Club certificates for Airships No9 and Balloons No 23, all in all a truly remarkable man.  Little wonder that when I went to his bungalow in trying to trace a relative of Allan's, one gentleman who remembered him commented " Because of his military bearing he was called the Major".