My name is James Ferguson and I was born in the Transvaal on the 29th May 1898 to British parents, James and Jane Ferguson.
I boarded at Godstowe School - yes, the school took boys in those days - and my sister boarded at Wycombe Abbey. I later attended Winchester College, from 1913 to 1916 but before entering the school I was with Mr Johns at Winton House. My family’s last known address was The Cedars, Totteridge Road where my mother was living at the time of my death.
I became a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. I was killed in an accident to my aeroplane in Catterick just a week before I was due to go to France on active service. I died in 1917 aged 18. This is how the accident is recorded:
12.3.17: D.H.2 A2561, 6 RS, Catterick
Wrecked after propeller lost, Catterick
2Lt James Ferguson (18) killed
Flying was still in infancy in those days. You'd be surprisd at just how many accidents there were on home soil as we airmen learnt the ropes. On the 12th March 1917 there were three other accidents as well as mine. There was a spinning nose dive from 800ft in the Beaulieu area (the pilot was injured but his 2nd Lieutenant was killed), then a plane spun after take-off and caught fire near Coventry killing two airmen, and another chap was killed due to engine failure at Cranwell.
Two months before my accident another Wycombe man, Lieutenant Frederick Harry Turner MC, lost his life along with that of his Captain when their plane hit a tree, crashed and caught fire, at Bramham Moor. We knew the risks but we were young, you just didn't think it would happen to you.
I was given a military funeral which attracted much local press attention at the time.
My monument is an expensive one. The wordy inscription alone would have cost a considerable amount of money. My family would have been offered a Commonwealth War Grave headstone but evidently preferred a more personal memorial to their only son.
