Alfred de Laage de Meux

Alfred de Laage de Meux (24 September 1891 – 23 May 1917) was a French lieutenant. He was one of the founders and second-in-command of the Lafayette Escadrille, serving under commander Georges Thenault. First serving as a cavalryman and second lieutenant for a separate regiment in World War I, he then entered the Service Aéronautique, serving as a machine gunner and observer, before receiving his flying certificate. He then met Georges Thenault before accepting Thenault's request to join the Lafayette Escadrille in 1916. De Meux was killed on 23 May 1917 when his plane crashed due to engine failure.

Early life
Alfred de Laage de Meux was born on 24 September 1891, in Clessé, Deux-Sèvres, to an aristocratic French military family. Prior to World War I, he was interested in agricultural science, working as a farmer.

World War I
De Meux first served as a cavalryman and second lieutenant for a regiment, before he was wounded in August 1914. Thereafter, he entered the Service Aéronautique in March 1915 as a machine gunner and observer after the regiment he first was in disbanded. While in a Caudron as an observer, he shot down a German enemy plane and received his second. De Meux then transferred to aviation, working as an air gunner while also teaching himself how to operate aircraft. He became a pilot on 22 March 1915, becoming one of several aviators to receive his military flying certificate without attending aviation school. He first flew a Farman aircraft for several months, scoring a victory, before transferring to another regiment, and entering combat in the Battle of Verdun thereafter. De Meux then met Georges Thenault, commander of the Lafayette Escadrille, and Thenault requested De Meux to join the aviation unit. De Meux accepted Thenault's request, becoming second-in-command of the unit in Luxeuil on 20 April 1916. Thenault and De Meux became the only two French aviators in the Lafayette Escadrille, though there were French ground crews and mechanics in the aviation unit.

He entered combat on 8 April 1917, shooting down two planes. De Meux was killed on 23 May 1917, in Ham, Somme, France, shortly after departing from an aerodrome. His plane's engine failed, causing the plane to lose flying speed, eventually crashing and killing De Meux. His funeral was held in Ham. De Meux was described as "a terror in the sky" and, by pilots under his command, "the man in the French Army" and "the finest man I ever knew", the latter of which described following De Meux weeping after a pilot under his command was killed.