On 14th May 1916 the pilot of this aeroplane was on a training flight as part of a course at the RNAS Flying School at Redcar when it crashed in a forced landing near Lythe and was badly damaged. A telegram relating the incident has been located in the National Archives which was sent at 12.20hrs on the same date and states "Coastguard Saltburn reports accident to aeroplane No.3277 1 1/2 miles W.S.W. of Saltburn. Redcar airmen in attendance. Damage unknown." In trying to work out a likely location for a forced landing today, the area known as "The Gallop", just south of Lythe, would seem the most likely place.

Pilot - FSL William Hargrove Chisam RNAS.

William Chisam was born in Carlisle, England on 15th November 1894 but emigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada in 1912. He learnt to fly at the Wright School in Dayton, Ohio and Augusta, Georgia, USA at his own expense and was awarded a Royal Aero Club aviators' certificate on 30th December 1915. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service in January 1916 and after serving with the Home Defence at Walmer he was posted to 10 Naval Squadron at Dunkirk on 2nd April 1917 but was posted to 3 Naval Squadron five days later. He was credited with a total of seven enemy aircraft as downed in total; two in September 1917 and then a big gap until March 1918 when he shot down a further five aircraft between 9th March and 24th March 1918. He was wounded in the hand on 26th March 1918. After WW1 he worked for an oil company in Mexico but returned to England in 1931, in WW2 he gave his services and served in RAF Intelligence, mainly in Fighter Command, throughout the War. Post-WW2 he worked for Shell and B.P. in Leeds, Yorkshire. He died in Winchester in 1972.