Deseronto Archives

On this day in 1918, Jack Burman, an electrician, died in Toronto of pneumonia. He was born in Leicester, England in July 1901, the son of William Arthur Burman, a railway worker, and Lucy (née Bartlett). He was baptised in Brackley, Northamptonshire on September 1st, 1901. William left England for Canada in 1905, with Lucy and Jack following in 1906.

Burman joined the Royal Flying Corps in Toronto on May 1st 1917 and served as an air mechanic with the Deseronto Wing. His regimental number was 71808. He was five feet four and a half inches tall and claimed to be 18 when he enlisted, although he was 15 at the time. The family were living at 277 Ashdale Avenue, Toronto. Burman was 16 when he died at the base hospital in Toronto.

Jack was buried in the St. John’s Norway Cemetery in Toronto.

On this day in 1918 Victor Raymond Evans, a cadet in the Royal Flying Corps, was killed at Camp Mohawk, the pilot training camp near Deseronto. He was born in Bradford, Ontario, on October 18th, 1896, the son of William Evans and Martha (née Neilly).Victor signed up in Toronto on November 14th, 1917 and was accepted into the Royal Flying Corps on December 10th. His regimental number was 153475. He was five feet five and a quarter inches tall. Evans was serving with 79 Canadian Training Squadron at the time of his death. The official Royal Air Force report noted the following facts about the accident which killed him:

…Date of Casualty: 24.4.18
Where occurred: Canada Camp Mohawk
Type of Machine: Curtiss J.N.4 C477
Nature and Cause of Accident: Struck on head by propellor while getting out of front of machine
Result of Accident: Killed
Name of other Occupant of Machine: 2nd Lt. J. I. [John Inglis] Bedingfield uninjured

The Court of Inquiry verdict was:

The Cause of the accident was in our opinion that Cadet Evans V.R. No. 153475 whilst on duty at Camp Mohawk, Deseronto, on 25th April, 1918, about 11 o’clock a.m., after having come down from an instructional flight under 2/Lieut. J.I. Bedingfield in Machine C-477, got out of the front seat of the machine contrary to instructions, and walked into the propellor.

Victor was buried in Bayfield Cemetery, Ontario.

Roy Edgar Pelton died of cavernous sinus thrombosis in Toronto General Hospital on this day in 1918 (although some sources say he died on April 15th). Pelton was serving as a cadet with the Royal Flying Corps’ 42nd Wing, based in Deseronto. He had originally enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Vancouver on January 25th, 1917 and had served in the Canadian Army Service Corps for eight months with the regimental number 200223. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in Winnipeg on November 13th, 1917 (number 153779) and was officially appointed to Corps on January 13th, 1918 in Toronto. He was five feet four and a half inches tall, with a dark complexion, black hair and blue eyes.

He would have spent the winter training in Texas with the rest of 42nd Wing, and must have fallen ill on his return to Ontario in April 1918: his death registration notes that he had been ill for two weeks. Initially his death was recorded on his Royal Flying Corps record as a flying accident in Texas. This was later crossed out and replaced with the correct information.

Roy was born in Grandview, Manitoba on July 10th, 1896 (other sources say October 7th), the son of Hiram Whitney Pelton and Edith Abigail (née Powell). Between 1901 and 1911 the family moved from Manitoba to British Columbia: Pelton gave his home address as 833 Pacific Street, Vancouver.

Pelton was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver.

Floyd Joseph Dwyer of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, died of a fractured skull in a flying accident at Camp Taliaferro in Texas on this day in 1918. He had joined the Royal Flying Corps in Toronto on July 17th, 1917 and was a member of 87 Canadian Training Squadron, which was part of the Deseronto Wing. He claimed he was 19 when he enlisted, giving the name of a friend, Mr E. O. Bowman of 678 Decarie Boulevard, Montreal, as his next of kin. His regimental number was 74247 and he was five feet five inches tall.

The official report of Dwyer’s accident notes that he was flying alone in a Curtiss JN-4 which crashed upside down in a field to the northwest of the camp; the cause of his crash was unknown. He was attached to 87 Canadian Training Squadron. At the Court of Inquiry held the same day, 2nd Lieutenant James gave the following statement:

3rd witness:- 2/Lieut. F. James, states:-

I was Cadet Dwyer’s instructor and gave him five hours and 50 minutes dual instruction. I could have soloed him sooner, but he shewed a tendency to stunt dangerously close to the ground. He was repeatedly warned against doing this, both by Captain Fairbairn and myself. I also gave Cadet Dwyer 85 minutes higher training. He had 18 hours solo and had looped several times. He was a good pilot, but inclined to be reckless.

[signed] F. James, 2/Lt

Dwyer was buried on May 4th, 1918 in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal.

Floyd Dwyer was the last casualty of the Deseronto Wing of the Royal Flying Corps in their Texas winter quarters: within three weeks of his death the training squadrons had returned to Camp Mohawk and Camp Rathbun.

On this day in 1918 Vernon William Blyth Castle was killed in a flying accident at Camp Taliaferro in Texas. The official casualty report noted the following details:

…Date of Casualty: 15.2.18
Where occurred: Canada Camp Taliaferro
Type of Machine: Curtiss J.N.4. C663
Nature and Cause of Accident: In trying to avoid a mach[ine] which was taking off the pilot who was about to land took control and stalled his mach.
Result of Accident: Killed
Name of other Occupant of Machine: Cadet R.O. Peters. U.S.A. Injured
Remarks: Capt Vernon Castle instructing in the front seat giving some landings to Cadet Peters before sending him off on solo. C of I [Court of Inquiry] as over.

The finding of the Court of Inquiry on the reverse of the report card reads:

COURT OF INQUIRY 22100/1918 CAPT. VERNON W.B.CASTLE
The Court having examined all witnesses, weighed all evidence and examined machine C.663, is of the opnion that Capt. Vernon Castle, while on duty in machine C.663 No.84 C.T. [Canadian Training] Squadron, in trying to avoid collision with machine C 449 of No. 85 C.T.Squadron did an Immelmann turn from which he was unable to recover before hitting the ground and was killed.

Castle was killed as a result of being in the front seat of the aircraft, a position he often took after being involved in the crash which killed Cadet Allan Walton Fraser in May 1917.

This photograph, from the collection of Sergeant Christopher Paulus Devos, shows the aircraft after the crash.

Devos’s annotations read:

Castle’s death made front-page news around the world. Here’s the Seattle Star‘s report on the evening of the crash:

In the Washington Times‘s version of the story, Castle was described as “America’s most famous dancer” and it was noted that:

Vernon Castle was the highest paid dancer in all dramatic history…During the height of the dancing craze Castle’s salary averaged $6,000 per week.

Castle was born in Norwich, England on May 2nd, 1887, the son of William Thomas Blyth and Jane (née Finley). He arrived in New York in July 1906 and started his career on the stage shortly afterward. He married Irene Foote on May 28th, 1911 and the two established themselves as dance stars in Paris and then on Broadway. Vernon learned how to fly at the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station in Newport News, Virginia, in early 1916, as this record from the Royal Aero Club shows:

He travelled back to England to join the Royal Flying Corps in March 1916 and served on the Western Front until the following March, when he was transferred to Canada as an instructor at Camp Mohawk. With the rest of the Deseronto Wing, Castle spent the winter of 1917-1918 training cadets at Camp Taliaferro in Texas.

Vernon Castle was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. In 1966 a memorial to Castle was erected at the site of his death in Benbrook, Texas.