A SPECIAL service has been held to remember the death of the first man to land an aircraft on a moving ship.
Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, of the Royal Navy Airforce, landed his Sopwith Pup aircraft on HMS Furious on August 2 1917.
Dunning, whose father was Sir Edwin Dunning of Jacques Hall in Bradfield, made aviation history with the landing in Scapa Flow in Orkney.
But he would be tragically killed five days later, aged just 25, while attempting to make another landing on the vessel.
John Cowan, Secretary of Harwich and District Branch Royal Naval Association, said: “He was killed during his second landing attempt of the day, when an up draft caught his port wing, throwing his plane overboard.
“Knocked unconscious he drowned in the cockpit.
“He is buried in a family grave at St Lawrence Church, Bradfield.”
The service was conducted by the Rev Christopher Woods, chaplain to the Harwich and District Branch of the Royal Navy Association, at St Lawrence Church.
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