Charles Walter Graham
Flight Lieutenant Charles Walter Graham DSO - his portrait by an unknown artist is at the Fleet Air Arm Museum
St Helier born Charles Walter Graham was killed when his RNAS aircraft crashed on take-off in 1916 during the Great War
Charles Walter Graham was born in Jersey and baptised on 12 Nov 1894 in St Helier. He was the son of Charles Knott Graham and Helen Catherine, nee Reuth.
His grandfather Walter Knott Graham emigrated to New Jealand in the 1850s, where his father and three of is siblings were born. The family then returned to Kent in the late 1860s.
His father and mother were married in England and had three sons, Arnold (1890-1891), Charles (1894- ) and Roland (1896- ). It is not known what brought his parents to Jersey, or how long they stayed. Charles was the only one of the brothers to be baptised there.
Aviator Certificate
He was awarded the Royal Aero Club Aviator Certificate (No 1082) on 12 February 1915 in a Grahame-White Biplane at Hendon, and joined the Royal Naval Air Service. In December of that year he was serving with No 1 Wing at Dunkerque and shot down an enemy two-seater seaplane off the coast of Belgium, before crash-landing his own aircraft. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
On 8 September 1916 he took of from RNAS Yarmouth in a Short 184 Type 8385 and dived into the sea after take-off. The aircraft's bombs exploded and he was killed. He is buried in the Old Cemetery, at Barnes, London, where his parents were living at the time of his death.
First entering service with the RNAS in early 1915, the Short 184 had a long and highly successful career and remained fully active until the Armistice - more than 900 being completed.
A portrait of Flight Lieutenant Graham is held by the Fleet Air Museum.
