On 15th April 1917 the pilot of this Maurice Farman Longhorn took off from Redcar for what was to be the pilot's first solo cross country flight. The pilot became disorientated in some snow clouds whilst flying over the Moors and the aircraft crashed upside down at 12.05hrs between Egton Bridge and Goathland , on what is known locally as Castle Hill. Local people found the pilot in the wreckage and carried him on a farm gate to nearby High Burrows Farm where he died soon after.
The aircraft, although probably badly damaged by todays standards, was in the main recovered and rebuilt. It was then returned to Redcar's flying
school where it served until July 1917 when it was again involved in another mishap at Redcar. Although not with fatal results, the aircraft this second time it
was written off on 18th September 1917. The pilot of this aircraft which crashed near Egton was buried in London two days after his death with full military honours.
Pilot - Probationary F/O Francis Holt Yates Titcomb RNAS, aged 19, buried Brompton Road Cemetery, London.
Francis Holt Yates Titcomb was born in March 1898 at St.Ives, Cornwall and was the only son of Mr and Mrs W H Y Titcomb, of Clifton, Bristol. His parents were both
artists and the family had moved to Dusseldorf, Germany in 1905 but returned to England in 1909 where the young Francis Holt Yates Titcomb attended college until 1916.
He was a talented violinist but his main interest was in aeronautics. He won a Science Scholarship at Caius College, Cambridge but joined the Royal Naval Air
Squadron as a Probationary Flying Officer. After five weeks of instruction at Crystal Palace he was posted to the Royal Naval Air Service Flying Training airfield
at Redcar for flying instruction where he did very well. It was during his first solo that he lost his life. A painting of him, done by his father before his death, hangs in Clifton College Chapel, Bristol, named "Conservet Corpus Tuum Et Animan Tuam" or "The Soldiers Communion". His grandfather was the late Bishop Titcomb,
the first Bishop of Rangoon, Burmah.
In 1929 Mr John Kenneth Foster J.P. of Egton Manor arranged for a cross to be erected close to the crash site. Although not visible in my photograph
it is inscribed "KF 1929". It was built from local Egton stone by Mr R Harrison of Ashley House, Glaisdale and the cross itself was sculpted by Mr J W Hill of Whitby.
"Swinsty Cross", as it is known, stands close to the spot where the Longhorn crashed but was apparently not erected on this site intensionally. It is a
copy of a cross found near Vittel, Vosges, France originally designed by Sir E L Lutyens A.R.A.
The crash site was excavated in 1980 by a Mr G. Terry, who recovered a spar which was stamped "BEE Co.". The present location of
this spar is unknown. Other parts are rumoured to be in a museum in the Middlesbrough area.