Last WWI Fighter Pilot Dies at Age 106

He received seven hours of dual instruction before he was sent to the front, to pilot what were at the time the hottest flying machines in the world. He crashed at Dunkirk, even before his first combat sortie (the result of the all-too-common engine failure), breaking his leg, cutting up his face, and losing several teeth. In six months, after recuperating (and not, of course, flying), he took some more instruction, and climbed back into a Sopwith Camel and resumed fighter-pilot duties. He eventually logged 250 combat hours' flight time and was in seven confirmed dogfights, remarkable in that conflict. That took guts -- and that kind of guts earned him France's Legion of Honour in 1999.

Although that honor came when Mr. Botterell was 'just' 102 years old, it still was a long time coming. Now, as far as anyone knows, no fighter pilots from the First World War survive. Few veterans of that horrible conflict, from any part of the service, are still with us; the youngest are 100 years old.

Mr. Botterell died Friday in a Toronto nursing home, in the country where he distinguished himself as one of the nation's first fliers. He also told his children how wars work. His observations sum up the warriors' mission: "If there was anything that my father would want to convey, it would be the fact that war is not about the individual person," said Mr. Botterell's daughter, Frances Marquette, who lives in Houston, quoted in The Star, Toronto's paper (which we credit with the information in this tribute). "It's against a regime and not the people."

Mr Botterell was an Ottawa banker when he left for war, signing up for Britain's Royal Naval Air Service, in 1917. One time, he flew so low over Belgium, that he snapped off a piece of fence post, which he eventually brought home with him. It's in the Canadian War Museum today, with pieces of his propeller, also damaged on that sortie.

Although he never again flew a military plane after 1918, he headed a Canadian air cadet squadron in WWII. His daughter, Frances, and son Edward survive. He was married in 1929; his wife, Maud, passed away some years ago.

...and thus closes the (amazing) chapter.