Remuera contribute many men and women to the Great War, across all the services. In this special feature to commemorate Anzac Day, Remuera Heritage chair Sue Cooper honours six WWI pilots who never returned home.    The Walsh brothers, Leo and Vivian, assembled New Zealand’s first aircraft, the Manurewa — in Māori, drifting kite — in 1911, in the basement of their home in Orakei Rd, Remuera. When New Zealand entered WWI in August 1914, they asked Prime Minister William Massey’s government for help with training pilots, but were refused.      Not to be deterred from the war effort, a signal was sent to the British government, as commanders of Imperial forces, asking whether New Zealand-trained pilots would be acceptable to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and what qualifications they would require. The Brits replied that all suitable candidates qualifying for the Royal Aero Club’s certificate in New Zealand would be accepted for commissions in the RFC. And could they please send as many candidates as possible, immediately?    With that imprimatur, the Walsh’s devised a six-month training course in flying boats at Kohimarama. Of the 110 men who did the course, 68 qualified for the RFC, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) or, from April 1, 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF). They were the middle-class sons of New Zealand — doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, farmers. Flying was appealing to men who wanted a commission, and who didn’t want to go into — or worse, return to — the wretched trenches of the Western Front.    Six Remuera men obtained their Royal Aero Club Certificate (like a private pilot’s licence today), but all met a tragic end Three were killed in air accidents, two on air operations and one at the battle of the Somme. Air accidents outside of battle were extremely common in WWI and the early years of WWII. Those lost in air accidents between 1915 and 1942 formed one-third of all who died flying.    Here are the stories of Remuera’s lost WWI pilots.    WILLIAM ARCHIBALD BUCHANAN  Billy Buchanan lived at 27 Victoria Ave, and attended King’s College from 1908-12, before going England to attend the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. When WWI broke out in 1914, he joined the Connaught Rangers and went to France with his regiment. Lieutenant Buchanan saw a great deal of service at Neuve Chapelle, including the second battle of Ypres in 1915, when the regiment suffered very heavy casualties. On April 25, 1915, William was invalided to England with a severe wound in the leg and the Medical Board declared him to be unfit for foreign service. After recovering, he headed for Birmingham in November, to join the Royal Flying Corps (RFC).    By January 1916, he’d obtained his Royal Aero Club certificate, and in May, his pilot’s badge with 1 Reserve Squadron. On June 2, 1916, he was training with 24 Reserve Squadron of the RFC on the Salisbury Plain, in a Morane-Saulnier Type L monoplane.     The plane, piloted by Buchanan, started up in one of the hangars, taxied out, but on lifting off, banked steeply and sideslipped into the ground. Almost immediately, the overturned plane burst into flames. The trapped observer, Capt. L Prickett of the Royal Garrison Artillery, died before he could be extricated from the wreckage. Fatally injured, Billy Buchanan died at the Tidworth Military Hospital five days later. He was two weeks short of his 22nd birthday. He is buried at Tidworth Military Cemetery in Wiltshire, and commemorated on the memorial Celtic cross at St Aidan’s Church, Remuera.    GEORGE EDMOND VERNON AIMER    George Aimer attended Remuera Primary School, and in 1910 started working for the Bank of New Zealand and also attended Auckland University College (as Auckland University was then known) in 1913. He was very popular in athletic circles, and had been captain of the then-Parnell based St. George’s Rowing Club.    In August 1915, he obtained extended leave of absence from the bank, and proceeded to England for “health reasons”. After a short time in hospital for treatment, he offered his services to the War Office, but they were not accepted, due to his health. Aimer instead studied aviation at the London and Provincial Aviation Company Flying School at Hendon, and after qualifying for the RAC pilot’s certificate in February 1916, was appointed an instructor at the Aviation Company’s school.    Three months later, he was given a commission as lieutenant in the RFC. But barely three days after earning his RFC pilot’s wings, his war abruptly ended. Aimer was at Northolt, Middlesex, on June 17, 1916, and on his third flight of the day in a Martinsyde single-seater biplane, when it went into a spin at about 3000 feet, and crashed vertically to earth. Rushed to the RFC hospital in London, 30-year-old George Aimer died later that day.     A verdict of accidental death was returned.    JAMES DALTON DINNEEN    Jimmy Dinneen was the fourth of Michael and Mary Dinneen’s brood of six. The family lived in “Unchinagh” on Mountain Rd, which today is 16 Upland Rd, Remuera. Dux of Auckland Grammar, Dinneen was teaching at the school when war was declared. He requested a year’s leave in order to go to England to study for his pilot’s certificate, and qualify for service in the RFC. Before he left, he was presented with a wrist watch by Grammar headmaster, J.W. Tibbs, on behalf of the staff. Dinneen left Wellington for the UK on February 1, 1915, aboard the steamer Remuera, accompanied by his sister, Charlotte.    He received a commission as a lieutenant in the RFC, and his probationary flying certificate after three weeks at a military school in Surrey. He was required to complete three months further flying training before being considered for active service.    But his plans were not fulfilled. Dinneen had to relinquish his commission owing to an eyesight problem which meant he couldn’t properly calculate his plane’s landings. Reported to be an excellent officer, he instead started in September at London’s Inns of Court Officer Training School. While an infantry commission in Kitchener’s army was in the offing, Dinneen wished to serve in the NZ forces, and made his way, at his own expense, to join the NZ Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in Egpyt. He was, he wrote, “anxious to get to work as soon as possible”.    Now Captain Dinneen, he arrived in France in mid-April, 1916, with the 1st Battalion Auckland Infantry Regiment (1-AIR). The Kiwis joined the fighting on the Western Front in the French Armentieres sector, where Dinneen earned praise for his efforts in the trenches. For the next three months, trench warfare went on without respite, and gradually increased in intensity, when on July 1, 1916, the storm burst on … Continue reading THE ANZACS – THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN