Hint a movie was made about his life. A song and dance man played the part.

Vernon Castle.

Nicely Done! It is Vernon Castle! Look him up online and you will see he to was a song & dance man.

Cheers Stephen.

Fred Astaire played Vernon Castle in a very good film.
As I am an Astaire fan the answer came quite easily which is a shame as there is much more to Castle than a liking for monkeys.

It would be a good thing for members to look into his history.


Perhaps the quiz could be extended by asking for the name of the Monkey?

Very well then I'll ask what is the monkey's name? But you Karl are asked not to respond. Anyone else?

Rastas ....





Terri

Terri, Not even close.

Hi there

I don't know if Vernon Castle had more than one pet monkey, but going by an interesting page about Vernon's memorial in Roadside America, I guess the monkey in the photo might be Jeffrey?

All the best

Rowan

Fair suck of the sav, mate. Terri is really quite close. The "other 'arf," so to speak.

Which brings to mind Luton Airport...

"Jeff" is what is on the original image border. Rastas was his wife's pet monkey.

Hi again

From the Roadside America article, it sounds as though Jeffrey was actually on board at the time of the fatal crash. Did Vernon usually fly with the monkey in tow? Surely not in combat?...

All the best

Rowan

Jeff the monkey, if the photo was taken in Canada! His other monkey, Hallad, died in France (no, not in action).

2nd Lt. Vernon William Blythe Castle served with 1 Squadron, RFC. He is credited with a large two seater biplane crashed on Nov 27, 1916 at 1230, at Vlamertinghe, while flying a Nieuport 10 (serial unknown to me, but it should be findable in the 1 Sqn SRB at the PRO. The observer in the Nieuport 20 was 1/AM Percy Henry O'Lieff. The combat report is in Air 1/1339/204/17/81, which is on microfilm, as frames 298, 298x (the backside of 298, unnumbered), and 299 and 300, which I think are the same as 298 and 298x).

He is credited with a second victory, an Albatros (presumably a Scout, probably a D.III) in flames, on March 11, 1917 at 1125, at Poezelhoek, Sheet 28 J.18.a, while flying a Nieuport 17 serial A6644 (this is a single seater, so no observer). The combat report is in Air 1/1Sqdn/1216/204/5/2634/1 Sqdn, frame 160 on the microfilm of that piece, and frame 283 of the earlier referenced piece.

"2/Lt. Vernon Castle was half of the glamorous Castle dancing team, enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps in 1915 and flew over 150 missions at the Western Front before being shot down. Afterwards Captain Castle was assigned to flight instruction camps in Canada and later at Benbrook Field in Texas. It was there on February 15, 1918, that he was killed in a crash during a training flight. Jeffrey the monkey and the student pilot in the rear seat survived. . .

He enlisted in 84th Royal Canadian Flying Corps Squadron and got his pilot's certificate Feb. 9, 1916. He arrived in London flight school later that month and was put on active duty in France in June 1916, was on front lines from June 1916-March 1917 (with a brief leave to England in Oct. 1916). He was awarded the Croix de Guerre for aerial service in France.

After a serious accident in France, he was transferred to Camp Mohawk in Deseronto, Canada, in spring 1917, and was promoted to 'A' Flight Commander of the No. 83 Canadian Training Squadron. Later that year he went to Benbrook, Texas, to teach raw American pilots, and was killed in a training accident on Feb. 15, 1918.

The Fall 2004 Issue of Over The Front magazine had an article that had some (3 or 4) nice photos of Vernon Castle in flying gear in the cockpit of one of his training aircraft, a newspaper clipping of him in uniform with his wife, and another shows him with his pet monkey.

The autobiography of Harry Bruno, whose papers are available at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, contains a vivid recollection of Castle's ability as a pilot and flight instructor. Ace Rodney Williams of Delafield, Wisconsin was just one of many aviators who benefited from Castle's instruction."

Benbrook was located in Tarrant County where Ft. Worth is today. WWI historian George H. Williams did a fine series
of stories on the co-op training in Texas & Canada in the early "Over the Front" Journals. The Castles evidently aquired their pets in the Britain & Canada. Vernon was an instructor by this time. Evidently they had dogs & monkeys often at the same time.

Vernon Castle & a Canadian Jenny - Canuck.

The following is from a "scrapbook";

". . .Late in 1914, Vernon was already interested in flying, was studying the mechanism in France and taking lessons. He was an apt pupil. He understood as if by instinct principles and details which others found it hard to grasp. He made several trips as a passenger over Hempstead Plain, and then bought an aeroplane of his own, which he took with him on tour. His first flights were with an instructor in Chicago, after he took the wheel on his own account. His friends first learned of his determination to go to the front as an airman when they received pictures of him on the shores of Lake Michigan taken just after alighting from a long trip over the water in a Farnham plane. Castle finished his preliminary training in a six-weeks course with the Curtiss instructors near Norfolk, Virginia. He had by this time so adjusted his affairs that he could devote practically all his time to his new work. . ."