CLAREMONT —The Fiske Free Library will host Byron Champlin of Concord, and his presentation. Flying for Uncle Sam: Concord, N.H., Aviators in the Great War on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m.
This illustrated talk will be held in the Gilmore Room of the Fiske Free Library, 108 Broad St., Claremont. This program is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Fiske and the Claremont American Legion
Post 29.
The Fiske Free Library will hold its second and final program commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War 1.
Byron Champlin, program officer at the Lincoln Financial Foundation, Concord City Councilor, and Concord historian, will be the guest speaker for this power point presentation.
Champlin will focus on four aviators with ties to Concord. His discussion of New Hampshire aviators’ experiences will be illustrated through the lives and experiences of four pilots – Arthur Coyle, John Winant, Tommy Hitchcock Jr, and Sidney
Beauclerk.
In 1916, through the National Guard, Arthur Coyle, of Concord, learned to fly at the Glenn Curtis School in Virginia before being posted at the Army’s new aviation school on Long Island as an instructor.
In August of 1917 Coyle went to France as part of the First Aero Squadron where he volunteered to fly with a French squadron as an observer/gunner. Coyle rose through the ranks and by October of 1918 was commander of the First Corps Observation Group, which consisted of the 8th Aero Squadron.
Following the war Winant returned to St. Paul’s, entered
public life serving two terms as Governor of New Hampshire. During his first term, Gov. Winant came to Claremont in 1926 for the dedication of LaCasse Park. During World War 2 Winant was appointed Ambassador to England.
Tommy Hitchcock Jr., was a student of John Winant at St. Paul’s School. He left school during WWI and joined the Lafayette Flying Corps in France. He was shot down, captured, and escaped the Germans. Later, in the U.S. Army Air Corps, during WW2, Hitchcock was assigned assistant air attaché to the London embassy working with his old friend Ambassador Winant.
The fourth Concord boy Champlin will talk about will be Sidney Beauclerk who was killed in action when his plane was shot down.
Crashing behind enemy lines, Beauclerk was buried with honors by German fighter pilots.
As part of the Fiske Free Library’s commemoration of the anniversary of The Great War, the staff of the library has put together a booklet honoring the soldiers from Claremont that died during the war. Those booklets will be available at the program.
The American Legion Post 29, a co-sponsor of these programs, has
generously loaned the Fiske Free Library a framed panel of the Claremont soldiers that died during the war. The panel will be on display during the program.
The public is invited to Flying for Uncle Sam, which is free and open to the public. Questions, chat, and light refreshments will follow the talk.
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