Coastal Class HMA C.11 airship at Scarborough.
On 23rd April 1917 this Coastal Class Airship, the C.11, had taken off from Howden at 08.50hrs to undertake a North Sea patrol, it was returning from this patrol in thick fog and was flying in the Scarborough area when the captain realised it was flying too low to clear the rising ground to the west of the town. The captain ordered his crew to climb the airship to try and avoid the hill but the tail dropped and it clipped the top of the hill, believed to have been the ground on which Scarborough racecourse was sited on the top of Irton Moor. This impact saw the tail skid of the airship break away, taking with it the aft-engine and controls, the engineer's seat and also at least one of the engineers. This engineer escaped serious injury and was able to walk to find the nearest telephone to contact his base, given the era there would not have been many in the area and it is believed that he found the nearest police station or post office and rang Howden to inform them what had happened. The immortal message of "have landed safely with engine. Request further instructions" was sent and recorded! Having deposited significant weight on Irton Moor the airship was then 1000lbs lighter and ascended rapidly and continued on its way for a short time as the remaining crew tried to release the gas, presumably to force land rather than risk drifting back out to sea. The balloon ripped and the C.11 crashed again, thought to have been in the Oliver's Mount area. The crew left on board were recorded as being injured as a result of this second impact. The other engineer on board sustained serious injuries and he died a few days later but whether he was deposited with the first engineer on Irton Moor or injured in the secondary impact. The roles of the radio operator and surviving engineer have deduced from their occupations prior to being in the RNAS.
I have not located any newspaper articles from the period but I have found one from many years after the incident where a witness recounted his memories to a reporter. He was unloading a lorry when he heard a crashing noise and saw the airship coming down behind some trees, then then ran across the fields and found that the gonola had dropped onto the Scarborough High School for Boys playing field and that the airship had collapsed among trees. He believed that there were three injured men in the gondola. Scarborough High School for Boys was the large brick building off Westwood.
An account of this incident was given in Yorkshire Air News February 1971 in which the former cheif reporter in from the Scarborough Evening News gave his version of events. He stated that the rear skids first struck the top of Oliver's Mount with the airstrip climbing to try to avoid a collision. This broke off the rear engine and left that and the engineer on top of Oliver's Mount. The rest of the airship then rose to 3000 feet. In internal pressure release panel then pulled off and the airship sank rapidly. The reporter gave the location of the crash that resulted as being "several hundred yards west of the present buildings of Scarborough College". This article also mentions that the Scarborough Mercury created a piece on the incident in September 1958.
I credit Brian Turpin's research into British airships, would direct anyone with an interest in the subject to his books. I thank him for contacting me in January 2012. Mr Turpin's books "British Naval Airships. Volume 1 to 4" are the definitive accounts of British airship history.
The C.11 airship was built at Kingsnorth, Isle of Grain, Kent. It began trials on 9th June 1916 before being flown to Howden from Kingsnorth on 26th June 1916 where it damaged a propeller when landing / docking at Howden. The C.11 airship and three others; the C.4, C.19 and C.21, where nick-named "The Howden Pigs". The C.11 was repaired and used at Howden until the accident at Scarborough. After the incident at Scarborough on 23rd April 1917, and although badly damaged it was taken away and rebuilt as C.11a at Kingsnorth. It was returned to Howden but was badly damaged again when it crashed into The Humber on 21st July 1917 and this time four of its then crew drowned. Arthur Higham and his father were awarded Royal Humane Society Awards for rescuing one of the crew of the C.11 in the Humber. The wreckage was again recovered and repaired before the C.11a was finally struck off charge in March 1918.
Captain - F/Lt Edward Keith Henry Turnour RNAS (36032). Suffered broken legs. Taken to Scarborough Hospital.
Coxwain - Name unknown.
Engineer - (Possibly) AM2 Arthur Leonard Rowland Yapp RNAS (F/12658). Suffered a broken arm and shock.
Radio Operator - AM2 Christopher Frederick Kidd RNAS (F/5004). Injured.
Engineer - AM1 Percy Dear RNAS (F/5426), aged 22, of Clive Vale Nursery, Impington, Cambridge. Died 28th April 1917, buried Histon Road Cemetery, Cambridge.
Percy Dear was born on 12th November 1894 in Cambridge and was working as a plumber and gas fitter when he enlisted for military service in June 1915. He served at HMS President (a building in London) from March 1916 and appears to have been attached to RNAS Station Howden from 1st to 23rd April 1917 but may have been at Howden from 1st August 1916 (his service record in the National Archives is hard to read). He served as a mechanic on board the C.11 airship. I thank Mr Michael French for both photographs shown on this webpage.
Christopher Kidd was born in Lambeth, London on 12th December 1898. He begun his Royal Navy service on 26th May 1915 as a Boy messenger and first served at HMS President II which was a land-based facility. From late 1916 to August 1917 he was either stationed at Howden or Pulham and must have flown on these smaller airships for some time, he sustained injuries as a result of the crash at Scarborough and these injuries are recorded on his service record. Purely because he was initially a messenger I am assuming he progressed this role and became a radio operator with the RNAS. He was Mentioned in Despatches in October 1917 at the same time as Turnour for service on patrol duties in Home Waters. Also in October 1917 he was brielfy posted to Cranwell and returned to President II later that month. On 29th November 1917 his service record states that he was admitted to Hull Hospital but the reason behind this is not known, on his release he returned to Howden on 17th December 1917 and until March 1918 he was generally either based at Howden with short detachments elsewhere. After March 1918 nothing is listed on his service record and it is highly likely that he joined the RAF on its formation in April 1918. A Cpl Christopher Kidd (205004) served at Longside and was awarded the Air Force Medal, Gazetted on 3rd June 1919 and is was probably the same person. He was also probably the same person who gained a Royal Aero Club Aviators' certificate at the Strathtay Aero Club on 10th August 1939.
The captain of this airship was Edward Keith Henry Turnour who was born on 2nd March 1896 in Denbigh, North Wales. He was the son of Rev.A.H.Turnour and Mrs A.N.Turnour. There has been a reference found to state that he enlisted for Royal Navy service on 15th January 1909 but his service record held in the National Archives has been purchased and it does not state when he first begun his service. In March 1915 he was in the rank of Midshipman and was serving at Kingsnorth but in the months that followed he was stationed at Rockhampton, Barrow and Luce Bay. He received a commission to the rank of Acting Sub Lt on 15th September 1915 and to Sub Lt on 15th March 1916. He arrived at Howden on 30th August 1916 and was promoted to F/Lt on 31st December 1916. He sustained injuries when the C.11 crashed at Scarborough and was Mentioned in Despatches on 1st October 1917 for service on patrol duties in Home Waters. He left Howden for Pulham on 7th March 1918 and appears to have joined the RAF when it formed in April 1918. On 1st April 1918 he was promoted to the rank of Hon.Capt. and to Temp.Capt. on 3rd June 1918. He appears to have been remained at Pulham until January 1919 but was assessed as being permanently unfit as a pilot or observer and fit only for ground duties, whether this was down to the injuries sustained in the Scarborough incident (and because WW1 needed his experience he was left to remain flying) or he was injured in a second incident is not known. He resigned his commission on 30th August 1919 retaining the rank of Captain. He died in hospital at Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales on 8th April 1968. His older brother 2nd Lt Arthur William Winterton Turnour was killed on 25th September 1915 while serving in the 2nd Bn. Rifle Brigade and is commemorated on the Ploegstreert Memorial in Belgium.
Arthur "Ronnie" Yapp was born on 5th June 1896 in Leamington, Warwickshire and worked as a motor mechanic prior to the First World War. He had originally served in the regular British Army in the first part of the First World War before transferring to the RNAS in March 1916. Having joined the RNAS in March 1916 he initially served at HMS President (a building in London). I presume his experience as a motor mechanic would have seen him transfer his skills to being one of the airship engineers. His first posting appears to have been to Howden and was at Howden in April 1917 when the C.11 airship mishap occurred so could well have been involved in the crash. He later served at Dover, Crystal Palace and Dunkirk but his service file, as obtained from the UK National Archives website, is a poor copy and is hard to read. I thank his niece Ms Victoria Whitfield for contacting me in 2016 and for the information she was able to provide this webpage. His son Bernard Geoffrey Dickens Yapp died on 5th October 1944 serving with the Sherwood Foresters in Italy.
I had previously suggested that Flight Sub-Lt William Edward McConnell RNAS suffered broken legs as a result of the C.11 crash on 23rd April 1917. While he did serve with a balloon unit his service records state that he was actually injured in a mishap with Balloon 55546 at Shackleford, Godalming. I had also suggested that F/O Edward David Bachelor Russell RNAS was also involved but his service file disproves that. I am a wally. Because people connected with the "aviation-safety.net" insist on copying my webpages they have also copied these errors to their page. Hay ho. Do your own research.