Robin Reginald Skene was accidentally killed on this day in 1914.
Robert Skene, the son of Felix Skene, the Chief Clerk of the Judicial Office of the House of Lords, was born in Fulham on 6 August 1891.
Known as 'Robin', at the time of the April 1911 Census, the 19 year old was a clerk at the Royal Exchange Insurance Office and living with his parents and three siblings and their housemaid, at 47 Addison Gardens, Kensington.
Robin obtained his Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificate on 21 July 1913, after tuition from Mr Meriam, flying at Bristol Biplane at The Bristol School at Brooklands.
He was a competent air acrobat, having looped the loop. He registered to race planes and hoped to cross the Atlantic one day.
A member of the Special Reserve, with a commission in the 3rd Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, obtained in November 1913, he was, upon the outbreak of war, assigned to No 3 Squadron under the command of Major John Maitland Salmond.
On 12 August 1914 the Squadron left its base at Netheravon, Salisbury Plain for France via Dover but soon after taking off Lt Skene's Bleriot XI monoplane side-slipped and dived into the ground killing him and his mechanic Raymond Keith Barlow. He was the first RFC fatality of the war.
It was suggested at the time that the aircraft may have been overloaded for its flight to France, though this now seems unlikely.
Robin is buried in St Mary's Churchyard at Send, Surrey.
12 August 1914 killed in a flying accident
Research by David O'Mara.
Reference: The Surrey Advertiser, Monday 17 August 1914 and Ancestry.