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 as part of his training with the RNAS Flying School. The pilot became
disorientated in some snow clouds whilst flying over the North Yorkshire Moors and the aeroplane crashed upside down at 12.05hrs between Egton Bridge and Goathland. It crashed 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 pilot was buried in London two days after his death with full military honours and an inquest was held at High Burrows Farm on the same date.
Pilot - Probationary F/O Francis Holt Yates Titcomb RNAS, aged 19. Buried Brompton Road Cemetery, London (U/174213).
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 intentionally. 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.
Francis Holt Yates Titcomb was born on 10th February 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 Service as a Probationary Flying Officer on 4th February 1917. After several weeks of instruction at Crystal Palace he was posted to the Royal Naval Air Service Flying School at Redcar for flying instruction on 10th March 1917. It was during his first solo flight 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.
Longhorn N5056 was built Brush E.E. Co. Ltd at Loughborough and was delivered to CSD White City who issued it to AAP RNAS Killingholme on 1st March 1917. It was later transferred up to RNAS Redcar on 14th March 1917 where it joined the RNAS Flying School. As a result of a mishap near Egton on 15th April 1917 it was not repaired. When it was assessed on 20th April 1917 it was then deleted as beyond economic repair on 4th May 1917.