Captain 2473 Royal Flying Corps 12th Sqdn, 5th Royal West Kent
Killed in action 06/12/1916 Age 25 Grave II. B. 22. AVESNES-LE-COMTE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
Son of Herbert Oakes Crowther and Nellie Oakes Crowther, of Beckenham.
Leslie, was educated at St Andrews, Eastbourne and Malvern College, spending two years further in New York and Dresden.
With the onset of the war, he joined the Royal West Kents in September 1914 but transferred to the RFC in December 1915. He qualified for his aviator’s certificate at the Shoreham Military School flying a Maurice Farman biplane on 15 December. The next year was spent as Captain Leslie Oakes Crowther at the Front flying a de Haviland BE2 where it is said that his time was spent ‘in many thrilling air fights and bomb-dropping expeditions.’
His death came about not in combat but by a serious defect in the plane’s design where the joystick was detachable.
He was flying a BE2d, a Bleriot Experimental dual control version with full controls in the front compartment.
With Leslie in the front seat and his co-pilot, Fanstone, in the rear, the plane circled the airfield at Avesnes.
Leslie pulled back on the joystick to counteract a tendency to nosedive but it came out from the socket and Leslie was killed as the plane went down and hit the ground from 300ft.
He is buried at the Avesne-le-Comte Communal Cemetery Extension. THERE IS A PICTURE OF HIM HERE. Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators=92 Certificates
