Cuthbert Orde

Captain Cuthbert Julian Orde (18 December 1888 – 19 December 1968) was an artist and First World War pilot. He is best known for his war art, especially his portraits of Allied Battle of Britain pilots.

Orde was born on 18 December 1888 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the second of five children. He attended Framlingham College 1902-07.

His parents were Sir Julian Walter Orde (14 January 1861 – 17 June 1929) and Alice Georgiana Orde (née Archdale) (1862–1945) of Hopton House, Hopton, Norfolk.

Sir Julian was the long-serving - at least 1903 - 1914 - Secretary of the Automobile Car Club of Britain and Ireland (which became the Royal Automobile Club). In response to the Motor Car Act 1903 raising the speed limit to a mere 20 mph, in 1904 he went to the Isle of Man where, with permission of his cousin the Governor, he started the TT races.

He was also an early member of the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, serving on its committees as early as 1909. It may be from here that his sons got their impetus to join the Royal Flying Corps.

The family had a strong military tradition going back several centuries. Orde’s great-grandfather was Major-General James Orde.

Orde served throughout the First World War, starting by becoming a second lieutenant in the Army Service Corps on 15 August 1914.

He was a lieutenant when he qualified as a pilot for the Royal Flying Corps in a Maurice Farman biplane on 10 May 1916 . Accordingly, on 10 June 1916 he was promoted from Flying Officer (Observer) to Flying Officer.

On 1 August 1917 he was promoted to flight commander. Because he had served in the early part of the war, he was awarded the 1914 Star. He was a captain by time of his application for the medal in December 1917. His home address for delivery of the medal was given as Apsley House, Piccadilly - his father-in-law the Duke of Wellington’s house on Hyde Park Corner, now in the care of English Heritage.

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