Whilst driving through the Oxfordshire countryside today (14.2.2015) we came across the churches at Acton Upthorpe and Acton Tirrold and in the latter I was taken with this memorial to a young man `killed whilst flying’ on 23rd July 1918.
The quote about, `We will not think of you as dead, but living / Living for ever in our love enshrined’ to some extent sums up my feelings about keeping alive the memory of individuals who sacrificed everything the wars of the previous century for us – they never die as their deeds and stories should be kept with us.
Therefore to keep Robert living, if not forever in our love, then forever in our memory and appreciation, the following information may prove of interest to some.
Robert was born on 30 June 1892, his father being Mr Leonard and Mrs Maria Slade of The Manor House, Blewbury, Oxfordshire. He attended Abindgon school as a boarder between 1901 and 1903. He attended Shoreham College in 1904.
In February 1911 he had emigrated to Canada (like so many young men determined to make their way in life in the dominions and colonies, including my own great-great uncle William Nevard who was killed at Vimy Ridge in 1917) to take up farming. When war broke out he joined the 18th Battalion o the Canadian Expeditionary Force, undertaking training at Winnipeg and Folkestone and was present at the battle of Loos in 1915, St Eloi in 1916 and Sanctuary Wood in 1917.
In 1917 he left the Canadians and joined the RFC. In October 1917 he was attacked by nine German planes and brought down two before he crashed. He was in the 1st London Hospital for many weeks, and was then appointed as a flying instructor in Shrewsbury, where he was killed. I presumed this was in a training accident.
A search of the British Newspaper archive has revealed more information in the Leamington Spa Courier of 2nd August 1918:-
Compton Verney
AERIAL FATALITY- Deep sympathy is expressed with Mrs and Mrs Slade of the Lodge Farm on the death of their eldest son, Robert B. Slade, RAF, who was killed on Tuesday week whilst at gun practice. Deceased, who was 26 years of age, joined the Expeditionary Force in September when living in Saskatchewan, Canada. He was transferred to the R.F.C. in January, 1917, obtaining his `wings’ in the following July. His machine was smashed in a fight last October and he was badly burned. After spending some time in hospital he became instructor and was recently gazetted Flight Commander while stationed at Salop.
His mother wrote to his old school in 1920, `He was an immense favourite with all who know him, ad the number of letters we received from his brother officers all speak of the great influence for good that he was with them and the men.’
Two things strike me in this case:-
1. Having come through so many major battles in 1915 and 1916 intact, and to have come through injured but alive from his dogfight, to be killed months before the end of the war in a training exercise seems particularly poignant.
2. Secondly it’s that picture of him with his wings. A young man who had shown initiative and drive to emigrate to Canada, who had seen fit to do what he saw as his duty by his mother country, who had shown further initiative to transfer to the Royal Flying Corps, he looks so proud with what he has achieved. What else might he have achieved had he lived? What a tragic generation.
Fight the Good Fight 