On 3rd April 1916 this aeroplane was severely damaged in a landing accident at Redcar aerodrome on a flight with the RNAS Home Defence Flight. On the night of 2nd / 3rd April 1916 Zeppelins attacked Northern England and Southern Scotland. L.14 dropped bombs on Leith and Edinburgh killing a number of civilians, L.22 believed it was releasing bombs over Newcastle but actually bombed fields near Berwick before heading north to Edinburgh and L.16 released bombs over the countryside to the north of Newcastle. The Bristol Scout may have been sent up to intercept the Zeppelins.
Bristol Scout 3029 was built by Bristol's of Filton and was delivered new to RNAS Redcar on 14th November 1915 where it joined the Home Defence Flight. It was written off as a result of this incident at Redcar on 3rd April 1916 and deleted from stock on 1st May 1916.
Pilot - FSL Henry Connell Vereker RNAS. Injured.
Henry Vereker was born in Somerset on 11th April 1895. He enlisted into the RNAS on 16th April 1915 and learned to fly at RNAS Chingford in Summer 1915 in a Maurice Farman Longhorn where he gained his Royal Aero Club certificate (Cert.No.1455) on 21st July 1915. He was posted to Redcar on 20th October 1915 and remained there until 6th June 1916 when he was posted to Eastchurch. He became reasonably famous for the events surrounding him being taken a PoW, on 1st January 1917 he was flying Handley Page O/100 1463 from England across The Channel to land at an airfield near Paris, After becoming lost he landed the aeroplane behind German lines in error and he and his three crew were made prisoners of war. The aeroplane was also captured and was flown by German pilots until being destroyed in a crash on 22nd August 1917. This type of Handley Page aeroplane was the first British heavy bomber and was by far the largest aeroplane of the time. He was "Mentioned in Reports" for valuable service while in captivity in December 1919 although Captain Vereker was transferred to the Unemployed List on 14th July 1919. What he did in the years between 1919 and 1939 are not known. On 30th August 1939 he was granted a commission in Class CC of the RAF as F/Lt (Honourary S/Ldr) in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch. He rose to W/Co (Temp) on 1st July 1943. He eventually relinquished his commission on 10th February 1954 retaining the rank of W/Co after a remarkable period of service. He died in Abingdon, Berkshire in 1993.