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Son of Archibald and Helen Langwill, of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.

LIEUTENANT LANGWILL.
Mr. A. Langwill, general manager of the  Newcastle Gas Company, received a private cable message on Friday informing him that his son, Lieutenant Trevor Langwill, of the Royal Flying Corps (previously reported missing on the 16th April while leading an offensive patrol over the German lines) died on the 17th April. His commanding officer advising that he was missing, wrote: "Whatever has happened  to him he is sure to have rendered a good account of himself. We all liked him immensely. A fine and fearless pilot, an indomitable fighter, and a capable officer, he is a very great loss to my squadron."

The son of the General Manager of the Newcastle Gas Company Archibald Langwill and his wife Helen Croudace - Trevor Langwill was born at Newcastle in 1890, the third of seven children. Educated at the Newcastle Collegiate School before attending the Maitland High School and then the Newcastle Technical College, he pursued a career with the NSW Government Dockyards as an engineering draughtsman.

Moving to Britain, he enlisted with the Highland Light Infantry in Scotland at the outbreak of war, before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in mid 1916. Following completion of flight training, Lieutenant Trevor Langwill was transferred to 60 Squadron RFC in 1917.

On 16 April 1917, Jasta 2 of the German Luftstreitkräfte Squadrons caught and severely damaged a British patrol with only two aircraft and pilots returning from the six which had set off.

The British patrol from C Flight of 60 Squadron was led by Captain Geoffrey Arthur Henzell Pidcock, acting A Flight’s commander, since regular Flight Commander Captain William Avery Bishop VC was absent. The other pilots in the patrol were Second Lieutenant Richard Eveson Kimbell (Nieuport 23 A6769), Second Lieutenant David Norman Robertson (Nieuport 23 B1501), Lieutenant Trevor Langwill (Nieuport 23 B1507), Lieutenant John Maccreary Elliott (Nieuport 23 B1509) and Second Lieutenant Lawrence Hastings Leckie.

At about 9.15am the patrol encountered enemy Albatros scouts near Plouvain after it went to the assistance of a British BE2, and although Pidcock drove down two enemy machines, Canadian Elliott was killed near Vitry. The circumstances of Elliot’s death are unknown though it is likely that his aircraft shed its wings while diving. Glaswegian Robertson was also killed, as was Kimbell – these two were claimed by Leutnant Kurt Wolff, Oberleutnant Lothar von Richthofen. Australian, Lieutenant Trevor Langwill was wounded, crashing his machine, and being taken prisoner. Langwill died of his wounds at Douai the next day. Langwill was shot down by Vitzfeldwebel Sebastian Festner.

Several factors contributed to the significant losses. The Nieuports suffered from inherent weaknesses in the lower wing, reducing manoeuvrability and risking break up. The aircraft did not have synchronising gear, most being equipped with over-wing Lewis guns which were harder to aim and had to be reloaded frequently, whilst all the newer German fighters had twin synchronised guns.

The patrol was also very inexperienced. All four pilots lost were new to the 60 Squadron and were therefore new to the Nieuports as there were none at the training schools in England. Further, Pidcock had also only been appointed a flight commander on 14 April 1917.

Reference: 

https://airwar19141918.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/7196/