Biography of Eustace Broke Loraine 1880-1912

On 3rd September 1879 Eustace Broke Loraine was born to [his father] Lambton Loraine 11th Baronet [aged 40].

On 5th July 1912 Eustace Broke Loraine [aged 32] died in a plane crash at Airmans's Corner [Map]. The first Royal Flying Corps officer to be killed in an aircraft crash while flying on duty. A cross was erected at the site but has since been relocated to the Stonehenge Vistors Centre.

Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 6 July 1912: "Aviation Tragedy. How the Accident Occurred. The inquest was held at Bulford Camp Hospital, Salisbury Plain, yesterday evening on Capt Eustace Brooke Loraine, 33, and Staff-Sergt. Wilson, 29, victims of the Army aeroplane accident. Capt. Loraine was in the Grenadier Guards, and Wilson in the Royal Engineers, and both were attached to the Flying Corps. A verdict of accidental death was returned."

New York Times 06 Jul 1912. 6th July 1912. SALISBURY PLAIN, England, July 5. — Capt. E. B. Loraine [deceased] and Sergt. Major Wilson of the Army Flying Corps were killed this morning, while flying over the great military encampment here.

They were taking their usual early morning practice, and the aeroplane had reached a height of 400 feet, when the machine lost its balance, turned over and fell with a crash to the roadway.

Sergt. Major Wilson was killed Instantly, but Capt. Loraine lived a short time, although he was unconscious when picked up.

The two persons killed in England yesterday bring the list of victims of the aeroplane to 159. Five persons had previously been killed during the present 'week. On July 1 Miss Harriet Quimby and William A. P. Willard fell from a height of 1,000 feet Into Dorchester Bay; Benno Koenig, a German aviator, was killed at the start of the Northwest Aviation Circuit Race, and Capt. Boyvo of the Spanish army died of injuries received in a fall on June 29. Three days later Lieut. Caranda of the Roumanian army was killed by a fall at Budapest.

Besides these victims of the aeroplane, there was the death of Melvin Vaniman and his four companions, who were killed by the bursting of Vaniman's dirigible Akron at Atlantic City on July 2, and two days later 'Tom' Moore, a professional balloonist, plunged to death at Hillslide Park, Belleville, N. J., when his parachute failed to open.

This double fatality is the sixteenth during the four years of aviation.

On 10th July 1912 the funeral of Eustace Broke Loraine [deceased] was held at Bramford, Suffolk [Map]. His remains were accompanied by a detachment of the Grenadier Guards to the Bramford Church where he was buried with full military honours.

After July 1913 a memorial cross was erected to Eustace Broke Loraine. His family, including his father Lambton Loraine 11th Baronet [aged 74] attended.