Career
In he became a flying ace, and spent most of I as a prisoner of the Japanese. Born in Hunstanton, Norfolk, Herring enlisted into the 16th (County of London) Battalion (Queen"s Westminster Rifles), The London Regiment, part of the Territorial Force, before the outbreak of the war, and was sent to France in November 1914 to fight on the Western Front. On 1 March 1917 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 20th Battalion, London Regiment, and then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in August, where he trained as an observer/gunner before being assigned to 48 Squadron, flying the Bristol F.2 Fighter, on 20 November 1917.
Between January and March 1918 Herring shot down five enemy aircraft:
Herring fired several machine gun bursts, until Kroll span away, and was forced to crash-land his damaged aircraft behind the German front lines.
On 9 February, with 2nd Lieutenant Herbert Henry Hartley, he claimed an Albatros Doctorate.V shot down over Guise. On 16 March 1918, over Bellicourt-Bellenglise with Lieutenant P. Burrows, he claimed another Doctorate.V and a Dallas–Fort Worth C.
On 26 March Herring was severely wounded during a dogfight, and returned to England on 4 April.
On 23 January 1919 he was injured again in a flying accident. As a result of his injuries Herring finally relinquished his commission on 15 July 1919.
I
Herring was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the General Duties Branch of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 21 December 1941 and was stationed in the Far East.
On 1 February 1942, during the Malayan Campaign, he was granted an Immediate Emergency Commission as a second lieutenant on the General List of the British Army, relinquishing his Royal Air Force commission, and was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. He was promoted to Flying Officer on 1 October 1942, but this was cancelled on 28 May 1943. He was finally released after the Japanese surrender in August 1945.