LEST WE FORGET
Second Lieutenant Richard Haddon CURTIS
Service No: 2997
Born: Glen Innes NSW, 1 March 1894
Enlisted in the Army: 30 March 1915
Unit: No. 4 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Died: Aircraft Accident, Bruay, 6 January 1918, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Sailly-Labourse Communal Cemetery Extension, Sailly-Labourse, Bethune, Nord Pas de Calais, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Richard Curtis, of Glen Innes, New South Wales
Place of Association: Glen Innes NSW
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Glen Innes ANZAC Park War Memorial Gates, Glen Innes NSW
The first fortnight of No. 4 Squadron at Bruay passed in various war-flying practice and in learning the country. “C” Flight began its career with extraordinarily bad luck. On the morning of the 6th of January, 1918, five of the six pilots of that flight were practising formation-flying, when, in
crossing during a turn, Lieutenants A. M. Anderson (1) and R.H. Curtis (2) collided, and, as they fell, a portion of the wreckage struck the machine of Lieutenant J. N. Cash (3) flying below them, and brought him down also. All three pilots were killed.
(1) Sopwith Camel aircraft B5217
(2) Sopwith Camel aircraft B2623
(3) Sopwith Camel aircraft B2474
Extract from Cutlack, F.M. (Frederic Morley) The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War 1914-8, Angus and Robertson Ltd Sydney, 1941 – Pages 213-4
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, CURTIS R H
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Book 1/968 page 461, 67709
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Richards, E.J. (Edward John) Australian Airmen: History of the 4th Squadron, publisher unknown, c1919