LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant Alaric Pinder BOOR
From Australia serving in the Royal Flying Corps
Service No: Not Assigned
Born: Perth WA, 18 October 1892
Unit: 113th Squadron*, Royal Flying Corps (based at Weli Sheikh Nuran)
Died: Injuries from Air Operations, Palestine, 31 October 1917, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Beersheba War Cemetery, Palestine
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Arthur and Emily Mary Boor, of Bunbury, Western Australia
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lieutenant Boor is the 1913 Western Australian Rhodes Scholar. A Boarding House at Aquinas College, Salter Point WA, is named in his memory.
Lieutenant Boor died during the Battle of Beersheba. At 0830 hours on 31 October, Lieutenant Boor (Pilot) took off along with Lieutenant John Herman Muller RFC (Observer) in an RE8 aircraft on a reconnaissance mission over the Beersheba area. Their task was to report on the defensive and offensive capacities of the Germans and Turks. The reports made by Muller were written down on note paper, wrapped around a stone and thrown down over the British Headquarters. The aircraft was reported to have “fallen out of control” and then crashed, killing Lieutenant Muller and fatally injuring Lieutenant Boor who died later in the day.
* Cutlack, F.M. (Frederic Morley) The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War 1914-8, Angus and Robertson Ltd Sydney, 1941 – Page 77 names the Unit as “X” Squadron RFC
References:
Aquinas College Website
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record PP2/11, BP14309
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Card 265678, 27113