LEST WE FORGET
Captain Cedric Ernest HOWELL DSO MC DFC
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: Not Assigned
Born: Adelaide SA, January 1896
Enlisted in the Army: 1 June 1916
Unit: No. 45 Squadron RAF
Died: Aircraft Accident, off Corfu, Greece, 9 December 1919, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Location not available (remains returned to Australia)
CWGC Additional Information: Not CWGC listed
Place of Association: Heidelberg VIC (residence of father)
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Captain Howell was discharged from the Australian Army and Commissioned into the British Army in March 1917. He is an Australian Air Ace with 19 victories serving with No. 45 Squadron RAF on the Italian-Austrian Front.
On 9 December 1919, Captain Cedric Ernest Howell DSO MC DFC RAF and Air Mechanic George Henry Fraser were killed during the Great Air Race from Britain to Australia when the Martinsyde aircraft which they were flying crashed at sea off St George’s Bay, Corfu. Captain Howell’s body was recovered a fortnight later.
On 13 November 1919, Lieutenant Roger Douglas MC DCM and Lieutenant Stuart Leslie Ross were killed during the Great Air Race from Britain to Australia when the Alliance aircraft which they were flying crashed at Surbiton shortly after take-off from Hounslow Aerodrome, London.
References:
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, HOWELL C E
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Card 274730, 139296
Bibliography:
14,000 miles Through the Air, Smith, Ross MacPherson, Sir, Published New York, 1922
Brownell, R.J. (Raymond James) (11) From Khaki to Blue: The Autobiography of Air Commodore R.J. Brownell CBE MC MM, The Military Historical Society of Australia, Lyneham ACT, 1978
Eustis, N. (Nelson) Australia’s Greatest Air Race: the great air race England to Australia 1919, Rigby, Adelaide, 1969
Garrisson, A.D.J. (Arthur Dean John) (O350) Australian Fighter Aces 1914-1953, Air Power Studies Centre Fairbairn ACT 2600, 1999
The National Geographic Magazine, Editions March 1921, May 1994