2Lt John Harold Vincent Latham RAF Killed 20 April 1918

[Will O'Brien]

I am doing some research on a distant relative of my wife's & have come to an impasse on the circumstances of his death. The chap in question was 2Lt John Harold Vincent Latham of the Royal Air Force. According to the London Gazette John was commissioned on 5 April 1918 & it states on his headstone that he was killed whilst flying on 20 April 1918 in Lincolnshire. What I can't determine is whether he was training to be a pilot & this was a training accident or if he was an observer of some kind & not actually flying the plane when it crashed. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to find this out? It doesn't help that I don't know what squadron was involved (training, operational or otherwise) nor the type of plane (which could perhaps be an indicator as to whether it was a training incident)   

[charlie2]

His casualty card answers your questions http://www.rafmuseumstoryvault.org.uk/archive/7000277074-latham-j.h.v.-john-howard-vincent

 

 Charlie

[Will O'Brien]

16 hours ago, charlie2 said:

His casualty card answers your questions http://www.rafmuseumstoryvault.org.uk/archive/7000277074-latham-j.h.v.-john-howard-vincent

 

 Charlie

 

Oh Charlie thank you very much indeed. Much appreciated. As you say that has answered every one of my questions.

[charlie962]

Charlie's link has 2 cards. (seem to have same info). Don't forget to look at reverse of card which has Court of Enquiry findings.

 

There are also newspaper archive reports eg on FindmyPast

             

 

Turning at 100 feet with not enough speed, inner wings going even slower than outer wings, inner wings stall and drop, aircraft spins into ground with no time to recover. Must have been the cause of many training deaths.

 

Charlie962

Edited 25 May , 2018 by charlie962

[Will O'Brien]

On ‎25‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 11:38, charlie962 said:

Charlie's link has 2 cards. (seem to have same info). Don't forget to look at reverse of card which has Court of Enquiry findings.

 

There are also newspaper archive reports eg on FindmyPast

             

 

Turning at 100 feet with not enough speed, inner wings going even slower than outer wings, inner wings stall and drop, aircraft spins into ground with no time to recover. Must have been the cause of many training deaths.

 

Charlie962

Charlie

 

Many thanks for the additional newspaper info. Yes I would imagine that trying to turn just before an attempted landing did cause numerous accidents when the trainees misjudged their speed (of lack of it).