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Remembered Today:

Casualty in No. 2 Fighting School


StumpyJack

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Hi,

My Great Uncle William Hall Steel was killed on the 01/07/1918 whilst serving with the No 2 Fighting School at Marske-by-the-Sea in Yorkshire. He served previously with the Northumberland Fusiliers in France, survives and seems to have been killed within 4 weeks of joining the squadron.

I am trying to find out the type & serial number of the aircraft that he was flying at the time but cannot find anything in the National Archives. I hope that someone out there may have this information? Any help gratefully received.

 

Phil 

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21 minutes ago, StumpyJack said:

Hi,

My Great Uncle William Hall Steel was killed on the 01/07/1918 whilst serving with the No 2 Fighting School at Marske-by-the-Sea in Yorkshire. He served previously with the Northumberland Fusiliers in France, survives and seems to have been killed within 4 weeks of joining the squadron.

I am trying to find out the type & serial number of the aircraft that he was flying at the time but cannot find anything in the National Archives. I hope that someone out there may have this information? Any help gratefully received.

 

Phil 

Hi

 

'Airmen Died' (DVD-ROM) has him as a Sergeant, No. 144784 aged 23 ex-10th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, who died at the age of 23 'Cause not Known' on 01/07/1918.  It may not be aircraft related.

 

Mike

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Hi Mike,

 

Yes, that's the man. Thank you for that. I'd never thought that it wasn't related to an aircraft crash, but it would tie in to the Yorkshire accident site that has nothing for the date. I'm not sure where to go after this.

 

Phil

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I think that Marske hosted some American units around that time? i.e. final training prior to being sent to France. In that regard there could be something in their histories rather than just in the British aircraft serials? e.g. if any injury was inflicted on groundcrew etc. (That said, injuries to a Sergeant Mechanic should be reported in any ORB, so it's probably illness).

 

The Yorkshire coroner's inquest records should have the relevant information, though the inquest could have taken place some time after his death.

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I'm aware of a number of American pilots who trained at Marske in the spring & summer of 1918, but the only "unit" I find at Marske is A Flight from the 92nd Aero in late May 1918 (see https://www.fold3.com/image/14541522 --- page 9 of a report of locations of air service units for May 29, 1918).  So I suspect that trying to track down info. via American unit histories is unlikely to yield anything. 

 

I would be interested to know whether a search for the coroner's inquest report helps---and interested in how one goes about finding it.  

 

Best,

---marian 

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Coroners inquests were usually reported in the local newspaper, and this maybe the only surviving record as many inquest documents were pulped in the ww2 wastepaper drives.

 

 I could not find anything in the index to those newspapers that have so far been digitised on the British Newspaper Archive for Northumberland or Yorkshire.

Its also worth checking at the local newspapers office (if still in business) in Redcar, they may have their own copies of the papers. These may also be in a local library in Redcar. Often a willing volunteer archivist will do a quick look up from a phone call esp if its for a deceased serviceman.

 

If they survive corners records could be at the North Yorkshire County Council Archives, as Redcar was in the North Riding in WW1. Or Redcar & Cleaveland Borough Council or Teeside Council may be worth approaching.

 

Have you located a death certificate ?  I could not find one in the civil records on ancestry, so perhaps there is one in the war deaths index on FMP. There should be one somewhere.

 

 

 

 

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Thank you all for your replies. I think I feel a trip to the North Yorkshire Coroners could be in order as it doesn't seem that their records are digitised.

I have just found a reference to his death certificate registered in Guisborough, about 6km from Marske, so I'll order that & see what it says.

I'll post the result here for interest.   

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That should be the right certificate as both Marske & Redcar were part of Gusiborough Registration District at that time. The cert will say if an inquest was held.

 

However have now found what I should have looked for at the start, a Dependents Pension Card, & pension card. This source reveals he had Pneumonia, so there possibly may not have been an inquest. The back of both cards is blank. (both images courtesy of fold3)

 

 

1525842761_ScreenShot2020-02-26at19_20_36.png.eca824897eed2806202a18a4c8e3ea2f.png

 

 

844925612_ScreenShot2020-02-26at19_40_09.png.62b5c576bf351746d080dd6141c77c39.png

 

The rest of this card just says she had a pension of 6s 6d per week for life.

 

 

 

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