Flight Lieutenant Claude Chester William Purdy

1. Flight Sub-Lieutenant (Royal Navy).
2. Flight Lieutenant (Royal Navy).
3. Flight Lieutenant (Royal Navy). 1917-09-01 to 1918-02-15

Purdy earned a banking certificate at Queen's University in Ontario. He worked for the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, BC.

In Prince Rupert he served with the 68th Earl Grey's Own Rifles.

He is remembered in Letters from the Front, a book that recognizes the service contribution of bank employees in the Great War.

On Feb. 15, 1918, two crews were assigned to escort a convoy of beef between England and Holland. They were to fly a Curtiss H-12B, the huge and lumbering flying boat. Purdy piloted one, with American gunner Albert Dillon Sturtevant, British air mechanic 1st class Sidney James Hollidge, and British boy mechanic Arthur Hector Stephenson. A second plane piloted by Faux, a South African, accompanied them. Suddenly a group of smaller, faster German seaplanes appeared. They split into two packs and several planes engaged each flying boat. Faux managed to elude his pursuers and made it back to England, but another group of German planes appeared with Oberleutnant Friedrich Christiansen, German air ace, lead pilot. Christiansen shot Purdy down. He later told Sturtevant's father that he saw three men clinging to the wreckage in the North Sea, but did not try to rescue them. By the time a plane from Felixstowe attempted a rescue, no sign of the men could be found.

The millionaires' unit: the aristocratic flyboys who fought the Great War ...By Marc Wortman. Purdy's death is described on pages 160 to 162.

Letters from the Front (Canadian Bank of Commerce).