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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0510.PDF
MAY 24, 1917. Casualties. Captain ELDRED WOLFERSTAN BOWVEE-BOWER, East Surrey Regiment and R.F.C., whose death was recorded last •week, went to France on May 1st, 191 5, and was in all the heavy fighting up to March, 1916, when he was attached to the R.F.C. He remained in France, flying over German lines as an observer, doing excellent work, until August, 1916, when he came home to take his pilot's certificate. Captain Bower flew over to France on February 27th last in charge of a number of planes and was reported "missing" over Hindenburg's line on March 19th, where he was seen to have been attacked by an overwhelming number of enemy machines, which had been hidden in the clouds. Captain Bower's body and that of his observer (Second Lieutenant Eric Elgey, R.F.A. and R.F.C.) have now been found by his own father, Captain T. Bowyer-Bower beside his beriddled machine. He was educated at Wootton Court, near Canterbury, and Haileybury. Lieutenant CHARLES COUPLAND, R.F.A., attached R.F.C., son of the late John Coupland.of Goscote Hall, Leicester, and of Mrs. Coupland, of 16, Connaught Square, W., was killed on May 6th. Born in 1884, ne was educated at Stony- hurst and enlisted in the Middlesex Yeomanry, receiving his commission in the 3rd Hussars. He went to the front with the R.F.A., and then joined the R.F.C. as an observer. Second Lieutenant NORMAN R. DE POMEROY, R.F.C. (reported missing on October 20th, 1916, now unofficially reported killed in action on that date), was 24 years of age, and the only son of Mr. Edward W. N. and Mrs. de Pomeroy, of Pantile, Aldington, Kent. He had his commission in the Army in December, 1915, and was gazetted flying officer in September, 1916. Second Lieutenant NORMAN WALTER MORRISON, R.F.C., who was killed on April 14th, was the elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Granville Morrison, of Theydon, Reigate, and was educated at Hillside, Reigate, and Charterhouse (Weekites). He left Charterhouse in December, 1915, obtained his com- mission in February, 1916, and went to the front in August, 1916. His parents are informed by his squadron captain that Mr. Morrison, who was 19 years of age, was killed while engaged on a very difficult and dangerous piece of work for which he had volunteered. Second Lieutenant R. C. OAKES, R.F.A., attached R.F.C., youngest son of Colonel and Mrs. Oakes, of Nowton Court, Burry St. Edmunds, who was reported missing on July 19th, 1916, is now known to have been killed in an aerial fight on that day. He was educated at Wellington College and Woolwich, and went to the front in May, 1916. His brother, Captain Orbell Oakes, Yorkshire Regiment, fell at Neuve Chapelle in March, 1915. Second Lieutenant J. I. M. O'BEIRNE, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, attached R.F.C., reported missing on April 3rd, and now unofficially reported killed on that day, was the younger son of Major O'Beirne, late Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and Mrs. O'Beiroe, of Astrop Grange.tiear Banbury, and Augherea, county Longford, Ireland, and was 23 years of age. He was educated at Summerfields and Radley College, and had just finished his three years' training at the School of Mining, Camborne, when war broke out. He joined the Special Reserve of Officers in September, 1915, and went to the iront, but was invalided home after the first battle of Ypres. Later he went to Sandhurst, and received a com- mission in the regiment, joined the R.F.C., and went to the front in May, 1916. Lieutenant JOSEPH SENIOR, R.F.C., son of Mr. A. Senior, of the West Riding (Yorks) Treasurer's Department, has died of wounds. He was 24 years of age, had had a brilliant scholastic career, and at the outbreak of war was at Wren's College, London. Second Lieutenant J. GUTHRIE TROUP, Cameronians Scottish Rifles), killed on May 13th, was the youngest son of the Rev. G. E. Troup, of Broughty Ferry, and was aged 20. He was educated at Seafield House Preparatory School, Broughty Ferry, and at Rugby. Joining the Officers' Train- ing Corps at St. Andrews shortly after the outbreak of war, he received his commission in March, 1915. In May of last year he went to the front, and had taken part in much of the fighting. Recently he was attached to the R.F.C., and had been serving in that capacity for the past two months. Flight Sub-Lieutenant ERIC B. J. WALTER, R.N., who was killed on April 24th, aged 19, was the elder son of Lieu- tenant Walter J. Walter, R.N.V.R., of the Stock ExchaDge, and late of Chase Cross, Romford, and Bryanston Street, W.C. He was educated at Stubbington, and University- College School, and, joined the R.N.A.S. on attaining his 18th birthday. The death at the Front of Captain ERWIN WENTWORTH WEBSTER, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, is announced. As soon as war broke out he joined the R.F.C., but after a serious accident, due to his defective eyesight, was obliged to give up. He then obtained a commission in the King's Royal Rifles. He had been wounded in 1916, and was ill in hospital at the end of the year. He fell on April 9th, the first day of the victorious British advance. Captain Webster's death is a severe loss not only to his college and many private friends, but to scholarship generally. The only son of that distinguished Spanish scholar, the late Rev. Wentworth Webster, he won a scholarship at Wadham, where he soon distinguished himself as a player of Rugby football and other games. He took a First in Moderations and a brilliant First in Greats, and was at once offered a Fellowship by his college. He possessed a greater knowledge of Basque and of German than perhaps any other Englishman, and was also acquainted with Old German and Old French. He had made a profound study of Aristotle, some of whose more difficult and less familiar treatises he would probably have edited. Second Lieutenant ARTHUR CYRIL YOUNG, aged 19, who gave his life for his country on April 2nd, was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Young, of 5, Purcell Mansions, Queen's Club Gardens, W. Educated at Wallington Grammar School, he, from his boyhood up, made aviation his one absorbing interest and study, desiring above all things to become an airman. On obtaining a commission in the R.F.C., August, 1916, he realised his ambition. He crossed to the front on March, 7th. Flight-Lieutenant LEWIS MORGAN, R.N., whose death through an aeroplane accident was announced on May 11 th, was the second and only surviving son of Captain and Mrs. L. H. G. Morgan, of Cheddoncote, near Taunton. He was educated on His Majesty's ship " Con way," and obtained his commission in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1908. On the outbreak of war he was appointed to the " Coronid," and served for nine months on the North Atlantic station. Sub- sequently he was transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service, and secured his pilot's certificate in June, 1915. One of his brother officers at Chingford, where the accident occurred, writes : " He was an eminently skilful and cool pilot; he has made a good many flights I should have been proud of, espe- cially when he was on active service in German East Africa. He made a splendid instructor, because with all his enterprise he was more careful of his pupils' learning to fly straight- forwardly and without taking unnecessary risks than any other instructor I have known." His brothers, Captain and Adjutant F. Morgan, R.F.A., 29th Division, and Lieutenant W. B. Morgan, South Lancashire Regiment, both lost their lives in Gallipoli. Probationary Flight Officer FRANCIS HOLT YATES TITCOMB, R.N., who was killed on April 15th while making a cross- country flight in England, was born at St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1898. He was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Y. Titcomb, of Clifton, Bristol, and grandson of the late Bishop Titcomb, first Bishop of Rangoon, Burmah. He received his early education in the Konigliches Hohenzollern Gymnasium at Diisseldorf. He had a distinguished career at Clifton College, 510
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