ALAN HAMMOND NICHOLS
Born January 7, 1897, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Son
of Professor Walter H. and Esther Connor Nichols. Home, Palo Alto,
California. Educated Monrovia and Pasadena schools, and Leland
Stanford University, Class of 1919. Joined American Field Service,
February 14, 1917; attached Section Fourteen until July 23, 1917.
Enlisted French Aviation: trained Avord, Tours, Pau, Plessis-
Belleville. Attached Spad Escadrille 85, Sergent. Croix de
Guerre, two army citations. Wounded June 1, 1918, in action near
Compiègne. Died of wounds, June 2, 1918, hospital, Compiègne. Buried
with military honors, Royallieu, Oise. Body transferred to American
Cemetery near Ploisy, Aisne.
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IT is not the individual that counts, but the cause for which he
labors. So Alan Nichols of Palo Alto believed. Though but a boy in years
he has left a record stimulating to all who came to know it. He
distinguished himself as a soldier, and will always be remembered by his
friends for his modest and utterly selfless attitude toward life.
When Alan Nichols enlisted as a volunteer in the first Stanford
ambulance unit, the town in which he had lived was decidedly
"pacifist" in its viewpoint. The editor of the local daily,
reading one of Nichols' letters, asked that he might publish it and
others as a patriotic duty. Alan greatly disliked the publicity, but a
reluctant consent was granted, and the letters became the feature of the
local paper. Thus young Nichols was partly responsible for swinging the
locality into close sympathy with the Allies in the hitherto remote war.
Perhaps the feature most striking about Nichols' letters is his
impersonal attitude. He seems to sense the insignificance of the
individual in such a war --- except his responsibility to other
millions. This sounds the keynote of his character, which was sustained
during his whole career as a soldier.
Nichols went to France in the February of 1917, with Section
Fourteen, recruited at Stanford, his university. After serving almost
six months he enlisted in the French air service. He received his
preliminary training at Avord, Tours, and Pau, went to
Plessis-Belleville, and finally was assigned to chasse flying at
the front. After a time, he was sent back to Plessis-Belleville to learn
the operation of the new Spad. During the German advance of 1918,
Nichols saw continuous combat service over the lines.
One morning early in June, Nichols was wounded while fighting off
several German planes which had attacked him simultaneously. Though
handling his machine so adroitly that but one bullet hit him, he was
wounded in a vital spot. However, he landed his machine within the
French lines behind Compiègne and was rushed to a hospital. It was nine
hours before he could be placed on the operating table, "owing to
the unavoidable confusion attendant upon the German smash," his
father says, "A Red Cross man who happened to be there writes us
that the boy was game to the last and smilingly thanked the nurse for
her kindness as he died."
He was buried with full military honors in the army cemetery at
Royallieu. Two French citations were awarded Nichols for his valor; a
Croix de Guerre with two palms, representing the two German planes
officially credited to him. He was recommended for the Médaille
Militaire, but did not receive it, inasmuch as this honor is conferred
only upon the living.
A trait that made Nichols an ideal soldier is revealed in a letter
after an air battle when he wrote, "Looking back over the day's
action, I decided that I was too hasty, too excited, and too wild. I
determined to take my time and be sure the next time."
One of Nichols' citations characterized him as "An American
citizen who is serving with the French Army for the duration of the war,
an energetic pilot, brave, high spirited, a model of calmness and
devotion to duty. Very grievously wounded while attacking an enemy
plane, he nevertheless retained sufficient coolness and presence of mind
to bring his machine back to our lines."
Nichols was a youth of strongly appealing appearance and personality,
and after his death, a chum wrote, "And this is the price that we
must pay to beat the Hun --- Alan Nichols. A finer, cleaner-lived boy I
never knew."
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