Airco DH.2 A2575 at Catterick.
On 26th November 1916 this No.6 Reserve Squadron aeroplane sideslipped while the pilot was making a left turn at fifty feet above the ground over the Catterick area and crashed. Sadly the pilot was killed in the accident.
Pilot - Capt Robert John Lillywhite RFC (1377), aged 23. Buried Westhampnett Churchyard, Sussex.
Robert Lillywhite was a nephew of Sussex and England cricket captain John Lillywhite, one of the famous Lillywhite cricketing family. Robert Lillywhite was born on 12th April 1893 at Chichester, he had earlier served in the Navy before the First World War but a heart problem caused him to leave. He was awarded a Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate on 1st January 1914 (Cert.No.720) following training at the Grahame-White Flying School, Hendon. He enlisted into the RFC on 8th August 1914. Newspaper reports of the period state he had served in Egypt and France, being twice Mentioned in Despatches but was posted back to England after being run over by a car after getting out of an aeroplane, also that he was a flying instructor at the time of his death. His medal card gives very little information about his service.