LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant Roger DOUGLAS MC DCM
Service No: 816
Born: Charters Towers QLD, June 1894
Enlisted in the Army: 11 May 1915
Unit: No. 6 (Training) Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Died: Aircraft Accident, London, 13 November 1919, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Brookwood Military Cemetery, Pirbright, Surrey
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter and Alice Douglas, of Flinders St., West Townsville, Queensland. Native of Charters Towers, Queensland
Place of Association: Charters Towers QLD
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 13 November 1919, Lieutenant Douglas and Lieutenant Ross were killed during the Great Air Race from Britain to Australia when the Alliance aircraft which they were flying crashed at Surbiton shortly after take-off from Hounslow Aerodrome, London.
On 9 December 1919, Captain Cedric Ernest Howell DSO MC DFC RAF and Air Mechanic George Henry Fraser were killed during the Great Air Race from Britain to Australia when the Martinsyde aircraft which they were flying crashed at sea off St George’s Bay, Corfu.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, DOUGLAS R
Bibliography:
14,000 miles Through the Air, Smith, Ross MacPherson, Sir, Published New York, 1922
Eustis, N. (Nelson) Australia’s Greatest Air Race: the great air race England to Australia 1919, Rigby, Adelaide, 1969
The National Geographic Magazine, Editions March 1921, May 1994