File:New England aviators 1914-1918; their portraits and their records (1919) (14779726344).jpg

Identifier: NewEnglandaviatVol1Tick (find matches)
Title: New England aviators 1914-1918; their portraits and their records
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Ticknor, Caroline, 1866-1937, ed
Subjects: Biography Aeronautics World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
WILLIAM WALLACE CHALMERS
FIRST LIEUTENANT, A.S., U S.A., NINETY-FOURTH AERO
SQUADRON, FIRST PERSUIT GROUP
SON of Dr. and Mrs. James Chalmers, of Framingham, Mass.; was
born in Columbus, 0., May 23, 1891, and is now living in Hartford,
Conn. He graduated from the Fitchburg High School in 1909, and
from Middlebury College, B.S. 1913. He played on the Varsity
football team four years.
He enlisted in S.E.R.C., on May 21, 1917, at Columbus, O., and
trained at the Ohio State University Ground School from May 21
to July 14, 1917. On July 23 he sailed overseas, and was trained
at Tours, Issoudun, and Cazaux. He was commissioned 1st Lieut,
on Nov. 20, 1917.
From March to May, 1918, Lieut. Chalmers acted as ferry pilot
at Paris, and saw active service with the 94th Aero Squadron at
Toul and Chateau-Thierry. At Chateau-Thierry he was captured
by the enemy, being shot down 15 kilometres behind the German
lines. He was held prisoner for the remainder of the war, but was
released after the Armistice, on Nov. 29, 1918.
Lieut. Chalmers sailed from Brest for America on Jan. 29, 1919,
and was discharged at Garden City on Feb. 18, 1919.
Married, May 14, 1919, Katherine Williamson.
Brother in Service —
Robert Burns Chalmers, Ambulance Section 511, now with
the French Army of Occupation.

[ 92 ]
Text Appearing After Image:

* ALEXANDER BERN BRUCE
FIRST LIEUTENANT,
NINETY-FOURTH AERO SQUADRON, FIRST
PURSUIT GROUP
Killed in action, Aug. 17, 1918
Son of David and Carrie E. (Wainwright) Bruce, of Lawrence,
Mass.; born at Seattle, Wash., May 3, 1894. He graduated
from Phillips Andover Academy in the class of 1911; a member of
the Cum Laude Society, and was on the honor-roll for four suc-
cessive years. He graduated from Harvard College in 1915; a memb-
er of the Phi Beta Kappa, with highest honors in scholarship. He
was a member of the Harvard Gymnasium athletic team, and of
the Harvard chess team.
On graduation from college he taught mathematics and chem-
istry at Phillips Andover Academy, until his entry into the Service.
He attended the Officers' Training Camp at Plattsburg in 1916.
In March, 1917, he helped to organize the Andover Ambulance
Unit, and sailed with its 23 members to France, April 28, 1917
Soon after arriving in Paris, he and his Unit volunteered for
camion service with the French Army, where he remained until
allowed to enter the U.S. Air Service, in Sept., 1917. He was trained
at Issoudun, Cazaux, and elsewhere; and was commissioned 1st
Lieut, on Jan. 22, 1918. After the big German drive was turned,
he was assigned to the 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group.
Lieut. Bruce met his death in combat at Les Cruaux, on Aug. 17,
1918. In an engagement with the enemy, his patrol was attacked
from above, and when their gas was almost exhausted the Ameri-
cans retreated; but Lieut. Bruce and another pilot of his patrol
brushed wings. Lieut. Bruce, losing control of his machine, started
to fall. But after falling 1000 metres, he regained partial control,
and made a tight spiral during the remaining 2500 metres. The
pilots above noticed that he was trying to spiral into an open field,
but he missed that and landed in a forest. His machine struck some
tall trees, nose first, at an angle of about 30 degrees, and Bruce's
neck was broken by the fall of nearly two miles.
Lieut. Bruce was buried where he fell, in the Commune of
Chéry-Chartreuve, Aisne, France.

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