Page 8 - Nov_2018

Flight Commander Fred Everst Banbury, DSC became Captain Banbury of No. 209 Squadron RAF.
Banbury was born in However, the same day Banbury took off in Camel
Wolseley, Saskatchewan, the "B7247" on a practice flight, he suffered a fatal heart
only son of Robert Samuel attack in flight and crashed. Banbury's award of
Banbury and Susannah the Distinguished Service Cross “in recognition of
services at Dunkirk" was gazetted posthumously on April
Beatrice (née March). He rd
23 ,l 1918. Banbury is buried in grave "III.E.5." in
was educated at schools in
Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, Nord, France
Wolseley and Regina before
attending Victoria College in
1911–12 and University
College in 1912–14. After
graduating he attended Ken Nicholson
Regina Normal School, and
also worked as a teacher at
Bredenbury, before becoming a law student at Regina.
Banbury travelled to the United States to enrol at the
Curtiss Flying School at Newport News, Virginia, in
March 1916. He qualified with the highest marks ever
gained at the school, after soloing a Curtiss biplane and
was awarded Aero Club of America pilot's license No.
th
507 on June 5 . Banbury then travelled to England to
join the Royal Naval Air Service, being commissioned as
a temporary flight sub-lieutenant on probation on June As an instructor with the RCAF during World War II,
th,
28 1916. After additional training he was eventually
Ken Nicholson trained many wartime pilots.
posted to France in March 1917 to serve in No. 9 Naval
Squadron based at St. Pol. Flying a Sopwith Pup single- After his honourable discharge, he continued to fly -
seat fighter Banbury gained his first aerial victory on 31 barnstorming and flying mercy flights.
May 1917. The following day he drove down a Ken established his own business, Nicholson Flying
Halberstadt reconnaissance aircraft. His squadron were Services, managed the Estevan Flying Club and was
then re-equipped with the Sopwith Camel fighter, and instrumental in organizing a chapter of
in one of these Banbury shared in the driving down of Saskatchewan Flying Farmers. He was also a
another reconnaissance aircraft off Westende on July volunteer and worked with the local Air Cadet
th
25 . Banbury gained three more aerial victories in Squadron, where he promoted aviation to a new
September, accounting for an Albatros reconnaissance generation of enthusiasts.
st,
aircraft and two Albatros D.V fighters. On October 1 ,
1917 he was promoted to flight lieutenant, going on to
gain three more victories over enemy aircraft that

month. He was granted the acting rank of flight
th
commander on November 9 , and gained his tenth
rd
victory on November 23 .Banbury returned to Canada
on leave in December 1917, before returning to
England in February 1918, and then to his unit in France
in March. He gained his eleventh and final victory,
sharing in the capture of a reconnaissance aircraft near
Becelaere, on 26 March. On 1 April 1918 the Royal
Naval Air Service was merged with the Army's Royal
Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force, and Flight
Commander Banbury of No. 9 (Naval) Squadron