LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant Ernest Cecil STOOKE DCM
Service No: Not Assigned
Born: Hawthorn VIC, June 1894
Enlisted in the Army: 14 January 1916
Unit: No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), 26 April 1917
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 Squadron Bristol Fighter aircraft B1280), Palestine, 19 August 1918, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Ramleh War Cemetery, Ramla, Israel
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Ernest and Georgina Stooke, of “Glencoe,” Olive St., Reservoir, Victoria, Australia. Native of Melbourne
Place of Association: Northcote VIC
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
We had a very bad accident this morning. Lieutenant Stooke (Pilot) and Lieutenant Kreig (Observer) went up in B.F. No. B1280 for an engine test. While he was taking off the engine cut out and he came down near the railway line and crashed into a moving railway engine and both the petrol tanks burst into flames and blew the machine to pieces. The pilot was killed immediately and the observer was burned to death.
Extract from Lax, M. (Mark) (editor) One Man’s War: Aircraft Mechanic Joe Bull’s Personal diaries 1916-9, Banner Books, Maryborough QLD 4650, 1997 – Page 126
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, STOOKE ERNEST CECIL
Bibliography:
Lax, M. (Mark) (editor) One Man’s War: Aircraft Mechanic Joe Bull’s Personal diaries 1916-9, Banner Books, Maryborough QLD 4650, 1997
Roberts, E.G. (Eric Glendower) (250197) Box Kites and Beyond, The Hawthorn Press Melbourne VIC 3000, 1976
Sutherland, L. W. (Leslie) Aces and Kings, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1935
Williams, Sir R. (Richard) (1) These are Facts: the Autobiography of Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams KBE, CB, DSO, Australian War Memorial and Australian Government Publishing Service, 1977 – Chapters 3-9