On 20th October 1917 this No.6 Training Squadron, Royal Flying Corps was having the propeller swung at Catterick aerodrome when the engine started and it struck the handler. National Archives file "AIR1/680/21/13/2207" states that "it sucked him in ". The injured men died the following day of the injuries sustained. An investigation found that the engine switches were in the off position at the time of the incident but that the magneto was probably connected. The engine started up when the propeller was rotated.
Handler - Sgt Herbert Harrison RFC (20405). Aged 21. Died 21st October 1917. Buried Oldham (Greenacres) Cemetery, Lancashire.
Pilot - Capt Whitworth Archibald Cecil Morgan MC RFC.
Whitworth Morgan was born on 13th May 1894. He had initially enlisted into the Welsh Regiment but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. For service with No.24 Squadron in France he was awarded the Military Cross, Gazetted on 27th July 1916 "For conspicuous gallantry and skill. With other pilots he attacked an enemy reconnaissance of nine machines. Under heavy machine-gun fire he got within twenty yards of one of them, shot the Observer and brought the machine down in our lines." He later returned to France, transferred to the newly created RAF and became a flight commander with No.79 Squadron, being wounded on 31st May 1918. He remained in the RAF until 1940 and died in 1975.
Back to yearly selection.