{"id":467,"date":"2017-04-27T11:24:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T17:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=467"},"modified":"2022-11-18T14:18:14","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T21:18:14","slug":"bonham-hagood-bostick","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/bonham-hagood-bostick\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonham Hagood Bostick"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Jasper County, South Carolina, September 1, 1898 \u2013 Columbia, South Carolina, October 25, 1968).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Bostick\u2019s forebears on both his father\u2019s and his mother\u2019s (Hagood) side had been in South Carolina since the eighteenth century; his father was manager at the exclusive Okeetee Club, a quail-hunting plantation in Jasper County near the Georgia border.2<\/a>\u00a0 Bostick prepared for college at The Asheville School for Boys in North Carolina and then proceeded farther north to attend Princeton (class of 1919).3<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
From the New York Tribune, June 3, 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was a student at the Princeton Aviation School<\/a>, which had been established in the spring of 1917 to train Princeton students, and then became a member of the first class<\/a> at the Princeton School of Military Aeronautics (\u201cground school\u201d) which superseded the Aviation School in June 1917, graduating\u00a0August 25, 1917.4<\/a>\u00a0 Bostick, Elliott White Springs, and others from this class went from Princeton to an army training field at Mineola on Long Island where Springs worked out a deal that allowed him, Harold Kidder Bulkley, and Bostick to get in more time in the air.5<\/a><\/p>\n

Having, along with other members of his Princeton ground school class, signed up to go to Italy for advanced training, Bostick set sail September 18, 1917, from New York on the Carmania<\/i>\u00a0 as one of the 150 men of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment.\u201d \u00a0Soon after the Carmania<\/i> docked at Liverpool on October 2, 1917, they learned they were to train not in Italy, but England. \u00a0The month of October was taken up with attending ground school (again) at the Royal Flying Corps’s No. 2 School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford.<\/p>\n

In early November most of the men in the detachment went from Oxford to Grantham to attend machine gun school. \u00a0Bostick, however, was among the twenty men selected by Springs to go with him to No. 1 Training Depot Station at Stamford to begin flying instead; most of them had already had some flying experience and would continue their flying training at No. 1 T.D.S.6<\/a><\/p>\n

Bostick\u2019s R.A.F. service record does not list his training squadrons, but notes the planes he had flown: Curtiss Jennys (which were used for training both at Princeton and at Stamford), Avros, Sopwith Pups, and Sopwith Camels, and that he had a general knowledge of Vickers and Lewis machine guns. \u00a0By mid-February, Bostick had evidently fulfilled the requirements for a commission; Pershing\u2019s cable forwarding the recommendation is dated February 21, 1918. \u00a0The confirming cablegram is dated March 2, 1918.7<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0On March 20, 1918, when he was placed on active duty, Bostick was at Wye in Norfolk, probably at No. 42 Training Squadron, where scout pilots trained on Camels.7a<\/a><\/p>\n

An entry in War Birds <\/i>for March 26, 1918, indicates that in March Bostick was in Scotland: \u00a0\u201cHagood Bostick came down here [Ayr] from Turnberry looking like the Queen of Sheba’s favorite husband. \u00a0He had on everything but the monocle to make him Hinglish. \u00a0He had pale pink breeches, light tan tunic with skirts down to his knees and boots and gloves and cane to match. He comes from Charleston, S.C., so doesn’t have to cultivate the accent. \u00a0Plucky little kid, he’s only nineteen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Bostick, along with Errol Henry Zistel of the first Oxford detachment, was assigned to No. 2 Aeroplane Supply Depot on April 4, 1918, and from there both were assigned to No. 43 Squadron R.A.F. on April 8, 1918.7b<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0George Clark Whiting and Henry Robinson Clay, also of the first Oxford detachment, were already assigned to No. 43, a Camel squadron, which, since March 22, 1918, had been at Avesnes-le-Comte (about ten miles west of Arras).8<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On April 11, 1918, soon after arriving at No. 43, Bostick was seriously injured when he crashed Sopwith Camel D6518 during landing practice.9<\/a>\u00a0 Concussed, and with wounds to the face and knee, he was sent to the British No. 8 General Hospital at Rouen on April 19, 1918; three days later, he was sent back to England on the Carisbrook Castle<\/em> and admitted to the R.A.F. Central Hospital in London.9a<\/a> Joseph Kirkbride Milnor, who was working at American Aviation HQ in London, noted in his diary on April 27, 1918, that he \u201cWent out to Hampstead to see Bostick who is back from France as result of a terrible crash.\u201d \u00a0Springs encountered Bostick in early May and gives a good account of his recovery in a May 7, 1918, letter to his (Springs\u2019s) stepmother.10<\/a> Excerpts from a letter dated May 24, 1918, that Bostick wrote to his parents were printed in a South Carolina newspaper in July 1918.11<\/a>\u00a0 He gives a gruesome description of his injuries and a cheerful account of his progress towards recovery, but few details of the accident itself. \u00a0He writes that his main concern was “being out of the swing for the time being. \u00a0I was present at the birth of our air service and I want to see it through to the end when it has outgrown the signal corps and even the army and becomes a new service on a footing with the army and navy.\u201d \u00a0According to his R.A.F. service record, Bostick was declared fit for flying duties in July. \u00a0In late October he was sent to the Central Flying School for a refresher course on Camels. \u00a0The war ended before he could return to the front.<\/p>\n

Bostick sailed for the U.S., along with a number of other men of the second Oxford detachment, on the Mauretania<\/em><\/a>, departing Liverpool on November 25, 1918, and arriving at New York on December 2, 1918.12<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He returned to South Carolina and initially went into business processing peanuts; he then moved into advertising.13<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

mrsmcq April 27, 2017; updated August 20, 2020, to reflect Milnor diary<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n

1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Bostick\u2019s date of birth is taken from The National Archives (United Kingdom), Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918-1919<\/i>, record for Bonham Hagood Bostick; and from Ancestry.com U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current<\/i>, record for Bonham H. Bostick. \u00a0The transcription of an obituary for him from The State <\/i>gives September 2, 1898, as his date of birth (see Anna, \u201cBonham Hagood Bostick\u201d). \u00a0His place of birth is taken from the transcribed obituary, his place and date of death from the Social Security Death Index<\/i> record. \u00a0The photo is a \u201cshot taken by Orren Jack Turner printed from the original glass plate negative,\u201dpresumably taken at Princeton in 1917. \u00a0It was posted by \u201cnjaviators\u201d (Michael O’Neal) in 2009 on the discussion thread \u201cWW1 \u2018Foggione\u2019 Pilot, Allen Bevin.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Documents relating to Bostick\u2019s family are available at Ancestry.com. On his father, see Perry, Moving Finger of Jasper<\/i>, p. 153.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Asheville School, Yearbook of Asheville School, Asheville, N.C., Founded, 1900: 1915\u20131916<\/i>, pp. 28 and 36; The Princeton Bric-a-Brac 1918<\/i>, p. 51.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See The Princeton Bric-a-Brac 1919<\/i>, pp. 85-87, and \u201cGround School Graduations [for August 25, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Springs, Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Neely, Diary, entry for November 1, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegrams 631-S and 857-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7a<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 Biddle, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 35.\u201d\u00a0 On 42 T.S. see MickDavis\u2019s contribution to \u201c42 TRAINING SCHOOL RAF\/RFC.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7b<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 These dates are taken from Bostick\u2019s and Zistel\u2019s casualty forms (\u201cLieut. B. H Bostick United States Air Service\u201d; \u201c2nd Lieut., Lieut. E H Zistell USAS\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0\u00a0See Munsell, Air Service History<\/i>, pp. 215 and 206 (30 and 21), regarding Whiting, and Clay. \u00a0On 43\u2019s location, see Philpott, The Birth of the Royal Air Force<\/i>, p. 405.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Henshaw, The Sky Their Battlefield II<\/i>, entry for Bostick on April 11, 1918, in \u201cAccidents Addendum.\u201d\u00a0 The plane was badly damaged and struck off charge (see entry for D6518 at Pentland, Royal Flying Corps<\/em>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9a<\/strong><\/a> See \u201cBonham, H.B. (Hagood Bostick),\u201d \u201cBostick, B.H. (B. Hagood),\u201d and Bostick\u2019s R.A.F. service record and his casualty form, both cited above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Springs, Letters from a War Bird<\/i>, p. 122.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

11<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0\u201cLetter from Aviator.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The obituary transcribed at Anna, \u201cBonham Hagood Bostick,\u201d states that \u201cBostick’s plane crashed in battle, reportedly from the concussion wash of a German \u2018Big Bertha\u2019 shell\u201d; this is almost certainly fabrication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, Army Transport Service, Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917 – 1938<\/em>, Passenger list for casual officers<\/a>, Air Service, on Mauretania<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See obituary transcribed at Anna, \u201cBonham Hagood Bostick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Jasper County, South Carolina, September 1, 1898 \u2013 Columbia, South Carolina, October 25, 1968).1 Bostick\u2019s forebears on both his father\u2019s and his mother\u2019s (Hagood) side had been in South Carolina since the eighteenth century; his father was manager at the exclusive Okeetee Club, a quail-hunting plantation in Jasper County near the Georgia border.2\u00a0 Bostick prepared … Continue reading “Bonham Hagood Bostick”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480,"parent":30,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-467","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7673,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/467\/revisions\/7673"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}