PILOTS REVIEW

BY GRAHAM CHANDLER

“He possesses resolution, initiative, presence of mind, sense of humour, judgement; is alert, cheerful, optimistic, happy-go-lucky, generally a good fellow, and frequently lacking in imagination.”

So stated an article published in the September 1918 issue of The Lancet, then as now one of the world’s foremost medical journals. It was written by two officers of Britain’s Royal Air Force who were discussing the characteristics desired in a pilot. The article added, “It appears necessary for the well-being of the average pilot that he indulge in a really riotous evening at least once or twice a month.” In short, “The type of fellow wanted as a pilot … is the clean bred chap with lots of the devil in him.”

Nanaimo-based retired educator Angus Scully, who taught history for 30 years has come up with In Our Youth: The Lives, Adventures, and Sacrifices of Early Canadian Flyers, a super-sleuthed book stuffed with little-known facts about early Canadian pilots, focusing on the 15 years between the Wright Brothers’ historical flight and Armistice Day 1918. He does it in a creative way starting with a single photograph of 29 men standing in front of a Curtiss JN-3 biplane at the Curtiss Flying School—students, instructors and mechanics—in July 1916 in Long Branch, Ontario. Fortunately, the men’s names were included so Scully set about painstakingly learning the details of each of their respective stories through old newspaper articles, diaries, museum documents and government files.

Scully’s digging paid off as he found much material to illustrate what these young men were all about. There are surprises. For example, who knew that writing poetry was a common pastime among these early flyers? In 1918, the British pulled off a daring raid on the port of Zeebrugge in occupied Belgium. Pilot Paul Bewsher was an observer on the lumbering Handley-Page bomber flown by experienced pilot Roy Allan

On the return, an engine failure forced them to ditch. Allan died, leaving Bewsher devastated, and shortly afterwards