Avro 504a B910 at Beverley aerodrome.
On 31st March 1918 this No.72 Training Squadron aeroplane took off from Beverley aerodrome but soon after leaving the ground the engine choked while the pilot was making a turn. The aeroplane crashed and the pilot was injured, he was taken to Brooklands Hospital, Hull for treatment. This was one of the last ever Royal Flying Corps flying accidents, it ceased to exist the following day when the RAF came into being.
Pilot - 2Lt John MacDonald Roberts RFC. Injured.
John Roberts was born on 22nd June 1891 at Goderich, Ontario, Canada. As a young man he worked as an accountant for a bank in Toronto. He served in the 1st Canadian Light (Trench Mortar) Battery before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in Summer 1917. He was granted a commission on 8th November 1917 and was posted to No.72 Training Squadron in early 1918. Having recovered from the injuries sustained on 31st March 1918 he was posted to No.46 Training Squadron at Catterick on 24th May 1918. He must have been assessed when he arrived there as he was admitted to Catterick Military Hospital the following day. He was later posted back to join the unit at Catterick but No,46 Training Squadron had folded and No.49 Training Depot Station formed in its place so he joined this unit. He was back in hospital in October 1918 but returned to No.49 TDS the following month. On 5th February 1919 he was slightly injured in another flying accident and his service file still has him serving at No.49 T.D.S. at the time. If correct then this presumably occurred in the Catterick area as this was where the unit was still based but no details of what occurred are yet known. This is however a No.41 TDS accident on the same date that involved a "Lt J McRoberts" crashing Avro 504 D4507 at London Colney which may actually be him with his name mis-spelt. He was later transferred to the Unemployed List on 11th July 1919.