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Old 04-09-14, 13:11
JBee JBee is online now
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Default John William Barr 1899-1917

2nd Lt Royal Flying Corps.

Born 1st January 1899 in Sunderland - 3rd child and eldest son of John William Barr (a shipyard rivetter) and his wife Ellen Kirk.

Billy was educated at St Mary's Catholic day school. In 1914 he became a Pupil/Teacher at Southwick Central School whilst also attending St Cuthberts Grammar School, Newcastle.

In March 1916 he was placed first in all England on the First Class Honours List of the Oxford Senior Local Examinations.

He enlisted into the Army in February 1915 and was in the training reserve until joining the Cadet Corps in August 1917.

In August 1917 he was passed medically fit to fly but don't know exactly when he started flying training.

On 25th October 1917 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the Royal Flying Corps.

When he joined the 49th Training Squadron at Doncaster he was being trained in a Maurice Farman Shorthorn bi-plane (the Battleplane!!). Have a copy of his last letter dated 4th November describing the feeling of flying and how the "bumps" make the plane fly in all sorts of ways, nose up then down, wings down then up when it shouldn't but aren't usually dangerous!!

He was killed on 14 November 1917 aged 18 when his plane flipped and crashed to the ground bursting into flames. (Family story was that the plane was on fire before crashing and they didn't have parachutes) but official reports say they don't know why the plane crashed. His instructor was also killed.
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Last edited by JBee; 04-09-14 at 20:08.
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