On Easter Tuesday, 2nd April 1918 the lower part of this RAF Instructor School aeroplane hit overhead wires running across Redcar racecourse which caused it to crash at 11.30hrs, the wreckage caught fire which completely destroyed the aeroplane. The pilot sadly died of multiple injuries at 21.40hrs. The unit had been the RNAS Flying School until 1st April 1918 but when the RAF formed on that day it became known as the Instructor School.
The date of the incident is quoted as being 3rd April 1918 on the pilot's Casualty Card, within an accident return from Redcar and on his service records. CWGC quote 2nd April 1918 and newspaper entries quote Easter Tuesday as the day of death (which was 2nd April 1918). I therefore should probably lean toward the 2nd April 1918 being correct as the documents that list this date are contemporary.
Pilot - Captain Charles Edward Pattison RAF, aged 21, of Winona, Ontario, Canada. Buried New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh.
Charles Pattison's father Ferdinand Grut Handasyde Pattison had emigrated to Canada with his first wife in the 1880s, and is listed in the 1891 Census of Ontario living with her two children at Grimsby North, Wentworth South. Ferdinand Pattison married again (to Elizabeth Blain) in 1895 in Toronto, and the son of this marriage, Charles Edward, was born on 13th May 1896 (apparently in Glasgow, Scotland). The family were then living in the same place in 1901 as they were in the 1891 census. Charles begun working at the Royal Bank of Canada, in Winona, Ontario on 2nd March 1914 prior to enlisting into the RNAS on 15th December 1915. He was granted a commission on 10th January 1916. Following training at Eastbourne and Cranwell he was posted to No.3 Wing on 1st August 1916 the to Dunkirk on 23rd April 1917. On 24th May 1917 he was admitted to hospital in England with a bullet wound to the chest sustained while serving on attachment to No.10 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. Owing to his injury he was permitted a number of months sick leave and was allowed to return to Canada. On 12th November 1917 he was assessed as fit in Canada and was posted back to England, to RNAS Eastchurch. The date he was posted to Redcar to train is not listed on his service records. He was buried in a very old burial ground in central Edinburgh in what appears to have been a large family grave. I thank his distant cousin Mr Don Montague for contacting me in June 2012 and supplying extra details on his family.
Sopwith Camel B5720 was built by Clayton & Shuttleworth Ltd at Lincoln and was delivered to the Home Defence Flight at East Fortune by road on 12th November 1917 where it served until being transferred to Redcar on 22nd March 1918 and would have served with the RNAS Flying School. The RNAS Flying School folded on 31st March 1918 and became the RAF Instructor School when the RAF formed the following day. It was destroyed as a result of the accident on 1st April 1918 and was deleted on 13th April 1918.
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