On 8th May 1916 the pilot of this RNAS aeroplane made a crash landing at or near Redcar aerodrome and it was badly damaged. The pilot was serving with RNAS Scarborough Home Defence Flight at the time of this incident. I presume that the aeroplane belonged to them rather than the RNAS Flying School, though could have been transferred to RNAS Redcar Home Defence Flight on the day of this crash.
Pilot - FSL John Francis Roche RNAS. Slightly injured.
John Francis Roche was born on 6th August 1888 in Dublin, Ireland. He initially served in the Army reserve between 1908 and 1912. He gained his Royal Aero Club aviators' certificate at the Beatty School, Hendon on 12th May 1915 (Cert.No.1234) then enlisted into the RNAS on 24th May 1915. He was posted to RNAS Redcar on 22nd July 1915, then RNAS Scarborough, then RNAS Killingholme on 5th January 1916 then back to RNAS Scarborough on 25th January 1916 where he appears to have served until 20th January 1917. He later became a flying instructor. In April 1918 he transferred to the newly formed RAF. In August 1919 he was granted a permanent commission as Captain in the RAF. By 1923 he was working in RAF Intelligence and received a posting to 70 Squadron in Iraq in Summer 1923. Nothing more is known about him. I cannot locate a suitable death registration for him in England; he may have returned to Dublin.
Avro 504 1470 was built by Brush EE Co Ltd of Loughborough and was delivered to RNAS Redcar on 10th December 1915, it was test flown and accepted there on 16th December 1915 where it served with the Flying School. It force landed at Yarm on 16th April 1916 due to engine failure. It was repaired on site and the next day it took off from Yarm to fly back to Redcar where upon it crashed on landing ripping off the undercarriage. The aeroplane was again repaired only to be written off in a second crash at Redcar on 8th May 1916 and was deleted from stock on 19th May 1916.