Jean de Gaillard de la Valdène


Jean Pierre Marie Joseph de Gaillard de la Valden was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories.

Biography

Count Jean de Gaillard de la Valdène was a French World War I pilot who shot down five German planes. In 1916 as a corporal he was noted for having shot down an Aviatik near Lure.
He is to be distinguished from comte Léopold de Gaillard de la Valdène.
He was married to Lilí Álvarez, the Spanish tennis player and feminist in 1934, who held feminist salons at their house in Bollène. In 1939, the couple lost their only child and soon after separated. Later he remarried to Diana Guest of the Guest family, a noted race-horse owner.
In the early days of World War II as a lieutenant, he was sent by Admiral Émile Muselier to Algeria and Morocco to recruit aviators willing to continue the war with the Free French Forces.

Honors and awards citations

"Caporal of Escadrille MF123; a pilot of great initiative and very adroit. Always prepared to undertake the most perilous missions. On 14 March 1916, he did not hesitate to engage in combat with three enemy planes, and, although flying a plane inferior in speed, he protected himself from his adversaries by dint of his skill, superior morale and initiative. The battle was terminated by the vertical fall of one enemy plane."