The Sopwith Camel crash at Chain Hill, Wantage, 1917, by Trevor Hancock

AT 1.45pm on September 29, 1917, a Sopwith Camel fighter aircraft was flying above Wantage performing a few evolutions.

It came in low over Chain Hill Farm and began to flatten out ready to land.

However it was too low and the undercarriage touched the ground with tremendous force, causing the machine to collapse.

Witnesses from the Royal Flying Corps and the King Alfred's School OTC rushed to the scene but nothing could be done for the pilot who had been thrown from the cockpit.

His name was Captain Lewis White MC.

The Sopwith Camel had been landed in a field near Chain Hill Farm just hours earlier by a different man – 2nd Lt Warwick Barnes, 28 Squadron Royal Flying Corps.

He had collected it from the Sopwith Aviation Company at Kingston-on-Thames and was flying it to Yatesbury in Wiltshire where the squadron was based.

Flying over Reading, the aircraft had developed a problem with its main petrol tank so, low on fuel, 2nd Lt Barnes decided to land to find a mechanic.

On landing at Wantage, the King Alfred's School OTC under the command of Captain Liddle came to guard the plane whilst the pilot went to contact Yatesbury and find some lunch in Wantage.

On his return to Chain Hill, 2nd Lt Barnes found that his flight commander Captain Lewis White MC, 2nd Lt Bill Winter and three RFC mechanics had arrived from Yatesbury.

The aircraft was examined and found to be in perfect order.

Captain White got into the cockpit to test the engine whilst on the ground and pronounced all in order.

The mechanics then filled the petrol tanks, and Captain White, rather than 2nd Lt Barnes, took the aircraft up on what turned out to be its last flight.

The subsequent inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death for Captain White.

Captain Lewis Scott White MC was aged 21, and was the youngest son of Dr Edward White and his wife Fanny of 2, Great Park, Bath.

Described as 'absolutely fearless', Lewis White had always been fascinated by flight since he was a boy at Victoria College Bath.

On the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Flying Corps as a mechanic, later receiving a commission and learning to fly.

He had already served a tour of duty on the Western Front with No 2 Squadron RFC flying in BE2c's as an observer.

White was awarded the Military Cross in 1916, for conspicuous gallantry in action: "When acting as an observer, he co-operated in an infantry raid by flying over the enemy trenches at a height of only 1,500 feet for over an hour and a half in very adverse flying conditions.

"He attacked the enemy with machine gun fire and located 16 active enemy gun batteries during this flight."

After transfer back to the UK in 1917, Captain White became a flying instructor with No 28 Squadron RFC at Yatesbury.

The week before his fatal flight he had attended an investiture to be awarded his medal by King George V and had been due to be posted back to France.

A military funeral with full honours took place in Bath on October 2, 1917.