Bishop and Naval 8

Al,

>Ok, so do you think that might explain why
>Little didn't seem to care for Bishop much?

No, not at all. It was mainly a joke. The well heeled Australians were bottom of the rung in comparison to well heeled Englishmen. A colonial silver-spooner was still had the colonial stain. Australia was still pretty egalatarian even then, and the well heeled were usually only white collared like Lawyers, Bankers or other prominent white collar professions, or more commonly cockies ( farmers ) with decent land holdings.

If you look at the professions of those that were officers in the AFC they were predominantly form white collar professions, like banker, foreman, station manager, grazier etc.

I wouldnt expect class to have made much of a difference with Little. Australians tend to judge by mateship, if Bishop didnt exude enough trust that Little felt "Bishop could possibly be a mate", he would probably be socially alienated by Little. I cant speak for them of course, so it is pure supposition, but I wouldnt expect class to be an issue if they had a relationship.



cam

[Billy_Bishop]

Al,

>Ok, so do you think that might explain why
>Little didn't seem to care for Bishop much?

No, not at all. It was mainly a joke. The well heeled Australians were bottom of the rung in comparison to well heeled Englishmen. A colonial silver-spooner was still had the colonial stain. Australia was still pretty egalatarian even then, and the well heeled were usually only white collared like Lawyers, Bankers or other prominent white collar professions, or more commonly cockies ( farmers ) with decent land holdings.

If you look at the professions of those that were officers in the AFC they were predominantly form white collar professions, like banker, foreman, station manager, grazier etc.

I wouldnt expect class to have made much of a difference with Little. Australians tend to judge by mateship, if Bishop didnt exude enough trust that Little felt "Bishop could possibly be a mate", he would probably be socially alienated by Little. I cant speak for them of course, so it is pure supposition, but I wouldnt expect class to be an issue if they had a relationship.

cam
*

Ok, so no real indication then as to why Little seemed to not care for Bishop. Perhaps, Bishop was a little too keen to have RAL sign his combat report?

VBR,

Al Lowe

Ok, so no real indication then as to why Little seemed to not care for Bishop. *Perhaps, Bishop was a little too keen to have RAL sign his combat report?

VBR,

Al Lowe

G'day Al,

I have been digging into the relationship between Little and Bishop on and off for nearly 2 years.

From what I can gather, and I have also read this in a letter from one of Little's relo's to a third party, that when Little landed at 60 squadrons a'drome, Bishop was almost resentful of the fact that Little had scored a victory in the guise of an OOC.

I wonder if BB thought of other scout aces as rivals, Little was fairly high profile at the time, as the OOC was his 29th victory.

Food for thought,

Andrew.

[Billy_Bishop]

G'day Al,

I have been digging into the relationship between Little and Bishop on and off for nearly 2 years.

From what I can gather, and I have also read this in a letter from one of Little's relo's to a third party, that when Little landed at 60 squadrons a'drome, Bishop was almost resentful of the fact that Little had scored a victory in the guise of an OOC.

I wonder if BB thought of other scout aces as rivals, Little was fairly high profile at the time, as the OOC was his 29th victory.

Food for thought,

Andrew.

THAT is very possible. From what I've read and been told by others, Bishop was VERY competitive at this time. So that could go a long way to explaining any animosity between him and Little. As far as I know, he had no real competition in his own Squadron, plus he had to work with those guys every day. Little, on the other hand, was from the RNAS, a competing service, and high scoring ace himself at this time.

So I'd say that probably explains it, for the most part.

VBR,

Al Lowe