On 14th July 1916 this RNAS Flying School aeroplane suffered an engine failure mid-flight, the pilot attempted a force-landing in a field with crops in it near Redcar but the undercarriage was torn off in the landing and the pilot sustained injuries. On 22nd June 1916 this pilot was flying another Avro 504 which was damaged near Redcar in similar circumstances.
Pilot - FSL Raymond Collishaw RNAS. Injured.
The internet yields a lot about Raymond Collishaw and I do not intend simply copying these works. He was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada on 22nd November 1893 to Welsh born parents. His requests in joining the Canadian Navy was not successful so he trained as a pilot with the intention of joining the RNAS, he qualified as a pilot in Toronto and sailed for the UK. He enlisted into the RNAS on 10th January 1916. On arrival he appears to have been posted to RNAS Redcar Flying School. On 22nd June 1916 he crashed Avro 504 1475 at Redcar, on 23rd June 1916 he crashed Avro 504 8595 at Redcar and 14th July 1916 he crashed Avro 504 1487 at Redcar that saw him receiving injuries. After completing his training in England he carried out patrol flights of the British coast before a posting to 3 Naval Squadron RNAS in February 1917 but was later posted to 10 Naval Squadron RNAS as Flight Commander, his flight was known as the "Black Flight" due to him painting all his aircraft black and naming each aircraft, Collishaw's being "Black Maria". After a period of leave he returned to 3 Naval Squadron in January 1918 which transferred to the RAF on it's formation in April 1918 and became 203 Squadron RAF. In total he was credited with some sixty enemy aircraft as downed though he had shot down many more but gave the credits to new pilots who were flying with him at the time. He was the highest scoring RNAS pilot and the second highest Canadian pilot in WW1. For his WW1 service he was awarded the DSC (Gazetted on 20th July 1917), the DFC (Gazetted on 3rd August 1918), DSO (Gazetted on 11th August 1917) and Bar to the DSO (Gazetted on 21st September 1918), and the French Croix de Guerre (Gazetted on 21st April 1917). He remained in the RAF after WW1 up until WW2 and rose to Air Vice Marshall commanding air operations in the Western Desert. He was awarded the CB (Gazetted on 4th March 1941), the OBE before March 1942 and the OBE (Civil) (Gazetted on 1st July 1946) but was "retired" from the RAF on 29th October 1943 not at his request. He later returned to Canada where he died in West Vancouver, Canada on 28th September 1976.
Avro 504 1487 was built by Brush EE Co Ltd of Loughborough and was delivered to RNAS Redcar on 13th March 1916. It was accepted following a test flight on 31st March 1916 and joined the RNAS Flying School. Following an accident on 14th July 1916 it was repaired and returned to service at Redcar. Correspondance with the nephew of FSL Eric Bailey RNAS reveals that he flew the aircraft four times on 3rd November 1917 and suffered engine trouble on all the flights. The aeroplane crashed on the third of these flights and was repaired on site the same day and was flown out by him. This incident is covered on it's own webpage. It was finally deleted from stock in February 1918, although this is not thought to have been as a result of an accident but probably through obsoleteness by this date. I thank Mr Jon Bailey for contacting me in May 2012 for supplying these extra details.