Evelyn Walter Copland Perry (4 December 1890 – 16 August 1914) was a pioneer British aviator and one of the first flying instructors in England. He was killed on 16 August 1914 in a flying accident while serving with the Royal Flying Corps in France, making him the first British Army officer to die in France during World War I.
Evelyn Perry | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Evelyn Walter Copland Perry |
| Born | 4 December 1890 Marylebone, London, England, UK |
| Died | 16 August 1914 (aged 23) France |
| Buried | St. Acheul Cemetery in Amiens |
| Service | Royal Flying Corps |
| Rank | Second Lieutenant |
Evelyn Walter Copland Perry was born on 4 December 1890, the son of Walter Copland Perry, the noted author and barrister and his wife Evelyn née Stopford.
On 12 September 1911, Perry gained his Royal Aero Club certificate on the Barber "Valkyrie" and became the 130th person in the United Kingdom to learn to fly.[1] He was then employed as a Royal Aircraft Factory pilot and carried out a considerable amount of flying at Brooklands on a Burgess-Wright.[2] In 1912, he worked with Thomas Sopwith at his flying school at Brooklands, where amongst others he trained Hugh Trenchard.[3]
With the outbreak of World War I, Copland Perry was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He flew to France with the Royal Flying Corps and was killed in a flying accident on 16 August 1914, making him possibly the first officer to die in the Great War.[4] Copland Perry was buried in the St. Acheul Cemetery in Amiens.[5]
References
edit- ^ "Great Britain's Earliest Aviators". content-delivery.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ Turner, C.C. (1927). The Old Flying Days. Arno Press. p. 44. ISBN 9780405037832. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ Baker, Anne (2003). From Biplane to Spitfire. Barnsley, Yorks: Pen and Sword Books. p. 19. ISBN 0-85052-980-8.
- ^ "- Person Page 3794". thepeerage.com. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ Reading Room Manchester. "CWGC – Casualty Details". cwgc.org. Retrieved 12 December 2014.