How awful ! ....... RIP Frederick Walter Elstone 12 June 1918 - Mr Frederick Walter Elstone, aged 38, a married man with four children, employed as a stockman-carter, of Hamland Farm, Huggetts Lane, Willingdon, was operating a mowing machine drawn by two horses at the aerodrome. He was killed when struck on the head by the propeller of an ascending aircraft flown by a Brazilian naval trainee pilot, 2 Lt Olavo de Araujo. The inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death but found that the pilot had not taken sufficient care to ensure that his path was clear for take-off. Mr Elstone`s funeral took place at Willingdon Parish Church a few days later. Some months later, in March 1919, Mrs Elstone, widow of the deceased, was awarded the sum of £280 under the Workmen`s Compensation Act, taking into account the deceased`s average weekky wage of something over £1/16s, per week. Eastbourne Gazette 19 June 1918 and Eastbourne Chronicle 22 March 1919.
