World War I: Vernon's Death
Vernon returned to the UK to become a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Flying over the Western Front, he shot down two aircraft and was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1917. He was posted to Canada to train new pilots, and then promoted to Captain and posted to the U.S. to train American pilots.
While he was away, late in 1917 Irene appeared in a star-studded revue, Miss 1917. Although she was singled out for praise by reviewers, she was unhappy performing on stage without her husband: "I found myself hopelessly lost as a solo number. I had no training for dancing alone and I should never have tried it." Though successful with critics, the revue failed to attract an audience; at least not enough of one to pay for the lavish production. Castle's specialty song was challenged on copyright grounds, and management cut it. In addition, her business was scheduled for late in the evening, around 10:30, and she found it difficult to perform so late and then do film work during the day. As the show failed, she and others were let go by the producers. She later sued successfully, but by then the production company was bankrupt. For the rest of 1917, she made fashionable and successful appearances on behalf of the war effort.
On 15 February 1918, on a peaceful flying field at Benbrook Field, near Fort Worth, Texas, Vernon took emergency action shortly after takeoff to avoid a collision with another aircraft. His plane stalled, and he was unable to recover control in time before the plane hit the ground. Vernon was the only casualty. He died soon after the crash, on 15 February 1918(1918-02-15) (aged 30). Irene paid tribute to Vernon in her memoir My Husband, 1919. There is a street in Benbrook, Texas, named in his honor, and placed on the street is a monument dedicated to him. Vernon was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. The grieving memorial figure on his grave was designed by Irene Castle's friend, the American sculptor Sally James Farnham (1869–1943).
Read more about this topic: Vernon And Irene Castle
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or death:
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Unbreachable the fort
Of the long-batter’d world uplifts its wall;
And strange and vain the earthly turmoil grows,
And near and real the charm of thy repose,
And night as welcome as a friend would fall.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“I cannot think this creature died
By storm or fish or sea-fowl harmed
Walking the sea so heavily armed;
Or does it make for death to be
Oneself a living armoury?”
—Andrew Young (1885–1971)