Lieutenant Christopher McEvoy was an English flying ace

Flying ace

A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...

 credited with nine aerial victories during World War I. Despite poor health, he would gallantly serve his nation in both World Wars before his early death.

Early life

Christopher McEvoy was born in Cricklewood

Cricklewood

Cricklewood is a district of North London, England whose northeastern part is in the London Borough of Barnet, western part is the London Borough of Brent and southeastern part is in London Borough of Camden.-History:...

, North London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

 on the second day of 1899. He was the first-born son of The Reverend

The Reverend

The Reverend is a style most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a...

 Cuthbert McEvoy and his wife Margaret.

World War I

When old enough, Christopher McEvoy joined the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

. In January 1918, he was assigned to No. 66 Squadron in Italy as a pilot. He was slightly wounded the following month, and hospitalized for a short while. On 30 March 1918, he scored his first aerial victory; by 1 August, he had run his tally of victories to nine. Illness then removed him from the cockpit; he was medically evacuated back to England with dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

. After recovery, he served in No. 39 (Home Defence) Squadron. He was rewarded for his pains with the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 23 September 1918:
Actually, the award gives McEvoy a short count, as can be seen below.

List of aerial victories

No.	Date/time	Aircraft	Foe	Result	Location	Notes
1	30 March 1918 @ 1315 hours	Sopwith Camel Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...  serial number B7389	Albatros D.III Albatros D.III The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service and the Austro-Hungarian Air Service during World War I. The D.III was flown by many top German aces, including Manfred von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, Erich Löwenhardt, Kurt Wolff, and Karl Emil Schäfer...	Driven down out of control	Monte Melatta
2	4 April 1918 @ 0920 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B7389	Albatros D.III	Set afire; destroyed	Cismon del Grappa Cismon del Grappa Cismon del Grappa is a town and comune in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. It is east of SS47.-References:*...
3	17 April 1918 @ 1420 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B7389	Albatros D.III	Destroyed	South of Giacomo Giacomo Giacomo is a Thoroughbred stallion race horse trained by John Shirreffs who is perhaps best known for winning the 2005 Kentucky Derby in 2:02.75...
4	26 May 1918 @ 0615 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B7353	Reconnaissance plane	Destroyed	Salina Salina -Places:Italy*Salina, Sicily, the second largest of the Aeolian IslandsMalta*Salina, MaltaUnited States*Salina, Kansas*Salina, New York*Salina, Oklahoma*Salina, Pennsylvania*Salina, Utah...	Victory shared with Harold Koch Boysen Harold Koch Boysen Lieutenant Harold Koch Boysen was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories.Boysen joined the Royal Flying Corps in June 1917. After training, he was assigned to 66 Squadron to fly a Sopwith Pup. He would not have any success until the unit re-equipped with Sopwith Camels and...
5	21 June 1918 @ 0805 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B5180	Albatros D.V Albatros D.V |-See also:-Bibliography:*Bennett, Leon. Gunning for the Red Baron. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2006. ISBN 1-58544-507-X....	Driven down out of control	Feltre Feltre Feltre is a town and comune of the province of Belluno in Veneto, northern Italy. A hill town in the southern reaches of the province, it is located on the Stizzon River, about 4 km from its junction with the Piave, and 20 km southwest from Belluno...
6	4 July 1918 @ 0815 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n D8235	Pfalz D.III Pfalz D.III |-See also:-Bibliography:* Gray, Peter and Owen Thetford. German Aircraft of the First World War. London: Putnam, 1962. ISBN 0-93385-271-1.* Grosz, Peter M. Pfalz D.IIIa . Berkhamsted, Herts, UK: Albatros Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-94841-425-1.* Guttman, Jon. Balloon-Busting Aces of World War 1 ...	Set afire; destroyed	Northwest of Asiago Asiago Asiago is the name of both a minor township and the surrounding plateau region in the Province of Vicenza in the Veneto region of Northeastern Italy...
7	21 July 1918 @ 1915 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B2433	Albatros D.V	Destroyed	Motta di Livenza
8	1 August 1918 @ 1155 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B2433	Albatros D.V	Destroyed	South of Mareno-C Tron
9	1 August 1918 @ 1210 hours	Sopwith Camel s/n B2433	Albatros D.V	Destroyed	Fontaneletto

World War II and beyond

McEvoy's life during the period between the World Wars is unknown. However, McEvoy returned to service for World War II, being appointed a temporary Pilot Officer on probation on 1 September 1939. He served in the rank of Flight Lieutenant

Flight Lieutenant

Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...

 as a codes officer for RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force . Founded in 1936, it was the RAF's premier maritime arm, after the Royal Navy's secondment of the Fleet Air Arm in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive...

. It seems likely he got in some cockpit time, as he was still serving as a Pilot Officer

Pilot Officer

Pilot officer is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer...

 when he surrendered his commission because of illness on 7 September 1940.

Christopher McEvoy died at Dorking

Dorking

Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...

, England on 12 October 1953 following a prolonged illness.