At 11.15hrs on 2nd April 1918 this aeroplane was in the process of taking off from Marske aerodrome as part of a training flight with No.4 (Auxillary) School of Aerial Fighting and Gunnery when it stalled and sideslipped into the ground. Sadly the pilot was seriously injured in the accident and died at North Ormesby Cottage Hospital later that day. This was only the second day the RAF was in existance and he was almost certainly one of the RAF's first casualties.
Pilot - Lt David Christie RAF, aged 25. Buried Glasgow Southern Necropolis.
David Christie was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He initially served in Canada as part of the Canadian Army Dental Corps but then enlisted into the Royal Flying Corps in early 1917 as a Canadian Cadet and was granted a commission to the rank of 2Lt on 5th July 1917. He appears to have done his flying training in Canada and received an assessment to become an instructor in gunnery "overseas" in Summer 1917. He then served with 51 Training Squadron, 83 Squadron and 110 Squadron over the next new months but appears to have only saw Home service. He was posted to Marske to attend No.4 (Auxillary) School of Aerial Fighting and Gunnery on 19th March 1918. He must have had distant family living in the Glasgow area to be be buried there.