On 14th May 1916 the pilot of this aircraft was on a training flight when it crashed
in a forced landing near Marske and was wrecked.
Pilot - Flight Sub-Lt William Hargrove Chisam RNAS.
William Chisam was born in Carlisle on 15th November 1894 but emigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada in 1912. He learnt to fly at the Wright School in Dayton, Ohio and Augusta, Georgia, USA at his own expense. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service in January 1916 and after serving with the Home Defence at Walmer he was posted to 10 Naval Squadron at Dunkirk on 2nd April 1917 but was posted to 3 Naval Squadron five days later.
He was credited with a total of seven enemy aircraft as downed in total; two in September 1917 and then a big gap until March 1918 when he shot down a further five aircraft between 9th March and 24th March 1918. He was wounded in the hand on 26th March 1918.
After WW1 he worked for an oil company in Mexico but returned to England in 1931, in WW2 he gave his services and served in RAF Intelligence, mainly in Fighter Command, throughout the War. Post-WW2 he worked for Shell and B.P. in Leeds, Yorkshire. He died in Winchester in 1972.
Caudron GIII 3277 was built by Le Crotoy and delivered to RNAS Chingford's Flying School on 25th June 1915. It was transferred to
RNAS Flying School, Eastchurch on 26th November 1915 where it was damaged on 12th January 1916. It was repaired and returned to
service to be transferred up to RNAS Redcar Flying School there on 23rd January 1916. It was deleted from stock on 4th June 1916
after suffering this accident at Marske a month previously.