HOWELL, Cedric Ernest
Service Number: | 5257 |
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Enlisted: | 1 January 1916, Melbourne, Victoria |
Last Rank: | Captain |
Last Unit: | Unspecified British Units |
Born: | Adelaide, South Australia, 17 June 1896 |
Home Town: | Heidelberg, Banyule, Victoria |
Schooling: | Melbourne Grammar School |
Occupation: | Draughtsman |
Died: | Drowned (Aircraft crash), Corfu Island, Greece, 10 December 1919, aged 23 years |
Cemetery: |
Warringal Cemetery, Victoria Body recovered and returned to Australia for burial |
Memorials: | Albert Park St Silas' Anglican Church Howell Memorial Window, Heidelberg War Memorial |
Biography contributed by Nathan Rohrlach
Cedric Ernest Howell was born in Adelaide in June 1897 to Ernest Howell and Ida Caroline Howell (nee Hasch.) After completing his studies at Melbourne Grammar School he became a draughtsman. A keen soldier, at the time World War One broke out, he held a commission in the citizen’s forces. Enlisting in 1916 he was allocated to the 14th Battalion and embarked with the 16th Reinforcements of that battalion soon after. He served with both the 14th Battalion and the 46th Battalion, with the later one on the Western Front before being one of 200 AIF personal transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in late 1916.
Trained with RFC, by the time the armistice was signed in November 1918 he had attained the rank of Captain in RFC and had being awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, several foreign awards and had also being Mentioned in Dispatches a couple of times. A star aviator, in August 1919 he was nominated by Martinsyde Ltd to be their pilot for their entry into the England to Australia air race to be held later that year. Paired with Lieutenant George Henry Fraser, also an Australian, who was a qualified navigator and engineer, they started their race in England on 4 December 1919. Plagued by bad weather throughout the early part of their trip, on 10 December their aircraft crashed into the sea near the Greek island of Corfu after failing to make a landing on the island. Captain Howell drowned soon after the crash and when his body washed up on shore it was returned to Victoria where he was buried with full Military Honours.
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For more information on Cedric Howell the reader is directed to the links in the side-bar, particularly the excellent entry into the 2012 ANZAC Spirit School Prize (rslvwm.s3.amazonaws.com).