2ND LIEUT. CHARLES MAURICE CROW, R.F.C. (S.R.), ATTD. 16TH SQDN. KILLED IN AERIAL ACTION OVER VIMY RIDGE, APRIL 23RD, 1917. AGED 20. At the School 1911—14: (Manor House). 2nd Lieut. C. M. Crow was the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Lewis Crow, of Shellwood Manor, Leigh, Surrey. His father is himself an O.T. (P.H. 1871—75). The eldest son, Frederick Lewis Crow (M.H. 1900—2), was unable to pass for active service owing to an accident in the hunting field. The second son. Major Percy Crow, D.S.O., M.C. (M.H. 1904—9), School Praepostor, 1908—9, Smythe Exhibitioner 1909, and Classical Scholar of Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1908), is an Assistant Master at Epsom College, and became a full Lieutenant in the O.T.C. there in 1913. He was gazetted Temporary Lieutenant, E.F.A., November 5th, 1914, and Temporary Captain, April 26th, 1918, and served in France with the 161st Brigade, R.F.A., for five periods between February, 1915, and January, 1919. He was invalided home with enteric in July, 1915, and going out again in December was severely wounded, his lower jaw being fractured by a bullet, at Thiepval, April 22nd, 1916. He was again wounded, this time in the right leg, at St. Quentin in April, 1917, and going out once more in August was slightly wounded, at Nieuport, on September 1st, and severely gassed at Poelcappelle on October 12th, 1917. He went out for the last time in January, 1918. He had become second in command of A/161st Brigade in September, 1916, but for certain periods in 1916 and 1917, and from March, 1918, onwards, he was in command of this Battery with the Acting rank of Major, and he was granted this rank on relinquishing his temporary commission. In 1919 he commanded the Epsom College O.T.C. He was mentioned in the Despatches dated April 9th, 1917, and March 16th, 1919, and was awarded the M.C. in 1917 and the D.S.O. in 1919. 2nd Lieut. C. M. Crow entered the School in May, 1911, and left whilst still somewhat young in July, 1914. He had intended following the profession of Chartered Surveyor, and to that end entered his father's office at Dorking, being still too young to serve. He was gazetted to a commission in the R.F.C., March 18th, 1916, and being keen on his work and gifted with any amount of coolness and courage soon became very efficient, and was quickly singled out for hazardous and difficult tasks. In April he was transferred to another Squadron for special duty, and on Monday, April 23rd, he went out on photographic work with a second machine in attendance. They were attacked by ten fast enemy scouts, five of which attacked and brought down each machine. Lieut. Crow received two wounds, in the chest and in the head, from either of which death must have been almost instantaneous. He was certainly rendered unconscious at once. His Observer, who has made a good recovery, was also hit in three places, but succeeded in taking control of the machine until near the ground, when he also fainted. He had been at the Front for nine months, serving with the 29th and then with the 10th Squadron, until he was transferred to the 16th Squadron in April, 1917, a few days before his death. He took part in the Battles of Vimy Ridge and of the Scarpa in the " Battles of Arras, 1917," and it was over Vimy Ridge that he was killed on April 23rd, 1917. The following is an extract from a letter from one of the officers of the Squadron:— " He was one of the most gallant and upright boys I have met in this War. We have lost a dear friend and the R.F.C. a fine officer. But God will not allow the high courage and the charm of your son to be wasted." The officer who had been his Observer for some time, but had returned to train for his Pilot's certificate two days before Lieut. Crow was killed, wrote :— " I had got to look on him as a younger brother. We have flown together a great deal and I looked upon him as one of the finest pilots in the Wing. On two or three occasions he saved my life by his coolness and courage. Every one in the Squadron had the greatest respect and admiration for him." The C.O. of his original Squadron wrote:— " He was known as ' our boy' in the Squadron, and loved by every one. He was with my Squadron for some months, but several of my best pilots had to be transferred to No. -- Squadron owing to there being a very great deal of work to be done there. He was a most gallant and loyal boy, and one wonders why the best are dealt with so cruelly " ; whilst the CO. of the Squadron with which he was serving wrote as follows :— " We miss him here dreadfully, both in the mess and in his work. He was so popular and very thorough and gallant in his work. It was only the other day that he carried out a very dangerously low reconnaissance, coming down to a height of 250 feet in order to inspect wire and trenches about two miles on the other side of the trenches on the ridge. He was recommended for the M.C. for this and a series of very good pieces of work of various descriptions, for which I still hope it may be awarded. He deserved anything. I can truthfully say that he was one of the most gallant and conscientious of my oflfioers, which characteristics you may naturally conclude endeared him to every one who had to work with him. He has left a gap in the Squadron which I am afraid I shall never be able to flll."