Claude Bettington, one of two airmen killed in a plane crash in Oxford, packed much into his short life.
His former college neatly summed up his contribution in an obituary in its magazine.
“At the age of 24, a fearless fighter with the nerve of a veteran; at 19, an inventor of worldwide repute; at 37, the first South African aviator to lose his life in the service of his King and country.”
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As we recalled (Memory Lane, September 12 and October 24), Lieutenant Bettington died alongside pilot Second Lieutenant Edward Hotchkiss, 28, when their two-month-old Bristol Coanda monoplane came down at Wolvercote on September 12, 1912.
The accident shocked the city and hundreds of people turned out at St Peter’s Church, Wolvercote, to pay tribute to the two men, who were members of the Royal Flying Corps.
Plaques in their memory were unveiled on what became known as Airmen’s Bridge and inside St Peter’s Church in the village.
Lieutenant Bettington was the son of Colonel and Mrs Bettington, of Johannesburg.
After leaving St Andrew’s College at Grahamstown, he worked for two engineering companies.
In between working for the two companies he travelled to London to study the construction of railway engines.
It wasn’t long before he was fighting in the Boer War and distinguishing himself.
He earned praise for sitting with an injured colleague all night to stop the flow of blood from a serious wound.
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Then, despite a bad attack of dysentery, he saddled up and galloped off with his squadron for a day-long defence of a strategic hill.
“Several times during the day, he fainted from sheer weakness caused by his illness but, on coming round, continued to take part in the fight until the Boers were finally driven from the hill,” the school recorded.
He earned a reputation for scouting work and went out most nights with colleagues to reconnoitre Boer positions, a patrol requiring “iron nerve and prompt decision”.
On another occasion, he built a platoon and got a whole column across a swollen river, a feat senior officers thought impossible.
After the war, he returned to engineering, but maintained his interest in the military, where he was regarded as “a good horseman, keen sportsman and excellent leader of men”.
After a spell in America, he arrived in England and when aviation was introduced, it was something he could not resist.
He decided to train to join the Royal Flying Corps with the aim of returning to South Africa to serve with the country’s defence force.
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He qualified for his pilot’s licence two weeks before he died.
The magazine added: “He was greatly looking forward to his return to his own country, and to his new life and work here.
“He was singularly fitted for such work - that of an aerial scout - by his special qualifications of coolness and courage, his quickness to see and act, his skill in engineering and his exceptional powers of observation.”
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