SECOND LIEUTENANT SIDNEY LORNE CROWTHER
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
20TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 21
BURIED: PASSCHENDAELE NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Sidney Lorne Crowther failed to return from a scouting flight on the morning of 20 September 1917. News that he was missing reached his parents 3,600 miles away in Toronto on the 23rd and the Toronto Star reported the fact the next day:
"Official word was received yesterday that Flight Lieutenant S. Lorne Crowther, of the 29th Squadron, France, has been missing since September 20th.
Lieut. Crowther is the youngest son of Mr and Mrs William C. Crowther, St George Street, Toronto. He is 21 years of age and was educated at Upper Canada College. He went overseas in May 1915 to drive the U.C.C. ambulance, returning to Canada to join the R.F.C., leaving again to train in England last November. His brother Major W. Beverley Crowther, was killed May 3rd 1917, at Fresnoy.
Lieut. Crowther went to France about two months ago, and duty has taken him over the German lines on a number of occasions. He had been on scout duty. This morning's mail brought a letter from him to his parents, in which he made brief mention of his work."
Crowther's mother chose his inscription; I like the way she calls him 'a soldier of the air', possibly not sure how else to describe him. Although distinctive RAF ranks were not introduced until August 1919 note how the Toronto Star described Crowther as a Flight Lieutenant. He was in fact a Second Lieutenant, Flight Lieutenant would have been a promotion; Pilot Officer became the equivalent rank.
There was no further news of Crowther until the body of an unidentified second lieutenant was located at map reference D.4.c.39 in March 1920. How the body was identified as Crowther's the records don't say.