Andrew Beauchamp Proctor
Name: Andrew
Frederick Weatherby "Proccy" Beauchamp Proctor
Country: South Africa
Rank: Captain
Service: Royal Flying Corps Royal Air Force
Units: 84
Victories: 54
Date Of Birth: September 4, 1894
Place of Birth: Cape Province
Date Of Death: June 21, 1921
Place of Death: England
Buried: Mafikeng, South Africa
Beauchamp Proctor was South Africa's highest scoring ace during
World War I. When the war began, he abandoned his engineering
studies at the University of Cape Town to join the army. He served
as a signaller with the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Rifles and saw
action in German South-West Africa before his discharge from the
army in August 1915. After completing his education, Beauchamp
Proctor joined the Royal Flying Corps in March 1917 and was
commissioned upon arriving in England.
On completion of his pilot training, he was assigned to 84
Squadron in late July and accompanied this unit to France in
September 1917. An S.E.5a pilot, Beauchamp Proctor was just five
feet two inches tall. His height made it necessary to raise the
seat and modify the controls of the aircraft he flew. Despite
these difficulties and a crash on March 11, 1918, Beauchamp
Proctor claimed 54 victories that year and became the British
Empire's highest scoring balloon buster.