DH.60 Moth G-EBRZ near Sherburn in Elmet.
On 23rd September 1927 this aircraft was being flown by a qualified pilot and member of the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club with a passenger on a sight-seeing flight when it stalled near Sherburn in Elmet airfield around half an hour into the flight. The aeroplane spun into the ground a quarter of a mile beyond the eastern boundary of the airfield from around 300 feet. The pilot was seriously injured, broke both his legs and later had a leg amputated while his passenger was killed. The pilot owned the aircraft from 30th June 1927 and used Sherburn in Elmet as it's base.
Pilot - Captain Anthony Milburn. Of Rufforth Hall, York. Injured.
Passenger - Mrs Dorothy Evelyn Ellison, aged 25. Irish descent, father of Helperby Grange, York. Burial location unknown. Possibly Gilling East Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Anthony Milburn was born on 28th September 1891 in the Acklington area of Northumberland, he was the youngest son of Sir John Davison Milburn, 1st Baronet and Clara Georgiana Stamp. He was educated at Harrow School and at Cambridge University. His military rank was retained from his time as a Captain in the Yorkshire Hussars. In the 1920s he lived at Rufforth Hall and with Sherburn being the nearest flying club location he joined as a member, gaining his Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificate (Cert.No.8109) following training at Yorkshire Aeroplane Club, based at Sherburn, on 3rd June 1927. His father owned Guyzance Hall in Northumberland and he also flew with the Newcastle upon Tyne Aero Club, probably while living at or visiting his father's residence. After the accident in 1927 he appears to have stopped civilian flying with either flying club, he appears to have sustained leg injuries that resulted in amputation of one leg or foot. He married twice and had one son, Pte Peter Bronwyn Milburn who was killed at Normandy, France on 12th August 1944. Captain Anthony Milburn died on 5th October 1941. Of note locally to Yorkshire is that his Milburn family own the Rosedale Estate on the North York Moors from which the Milburn Arms hotel is still named.
