On 22nd April 1918 the engine of this RAF Instructor School aeroplane failed during a turn at a low height, the pilot tried to turn back to the aerodrome but the aeroplane sideslipped and spun into the ground near Redcar.
Pilot - Temp F/O Charles Reynolds Moore RAF. Injured.
Pilot? - AM1 William Alfred Charles Easter RAF (235264), aged 23. Buried Oxted Churchyard, Surrey.
William Easter's birth was registered in Croydon in 1894 and his death, as would be expected for occurring in Redcar, was registered at Guisborough. He has earlier served in the RNAS before the RAF was formed and he then transferred to it. His rank is also quoted a Private on his Casualty Card. I don't know enough about First World War ranks to know which is correct and whether his rank was sufficient enough to allow him to under pilot duties.
Charles Moore was born on 17th July 1894 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His RNAS service file states that he was granted a commission in the RNAS on 9th December 1917 but that he had already served as an officer in the RFC. He transferred to the newly created RAF on 1st April 1918. His service file recommended that he undertake instructor training and was posted to Redcar to attend the Instructor School on 4th April 1918 (listed on his service files as Instructor's Course and also No.2 Instructor School). If he was an instructor then this cannot have lasted long, if at all. He was later posted to No.202 Squadron and served in France. On 28th September 1918 he was made a PoW flying DH.4 A8066 and later repatriated in December 1918. He was then transferred to the Unemployed List in April 1919.
Avro 504 B8618 was built by George Parnall & Sons Ltd for the RFC but was transferred to the RNAS before completion and was delivered to RNAS Redcar for assembly on 12th January 1918 where it was operated by the RNAS Flying School. On 1st April 1918 the unit and their aeroplanes became under RAF control and the unit became the Instructor School. The aeroplane was badly damaged in the incident detailed above but was not initially written off. Records show it was still on charge with the unit later in May 1918 and it was then transferred to the North East Area Flying Instructors School (at Redcar) on 1st September 1918. Records are lost post-28th November 1918 and it was still on charge with that unit at that date suggesting it was being use for spares, although there are no records to confirm this.
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