{"id":516,"date":"2017-04-28T13:25:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T19:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=516"},"modified":"2022-11-22T11:36:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T18:36:54","slug":"george-atherton-brader","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/george-atherton-brader\/","title":{"rendered":"George Atherton Brader"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Kingston, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1893 \u2013 Turnberry, Scotland, April 5, 1918).1<\/a><\/p>\n

The Braders were of German descent but had lived in Pennsylvania for several generations when Brader was born; his father was a \u201cleading figure in real estate and insurance circles in Luzerne County.\u201d2<\/a> After attending high school in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, Brader studied at the nearby Wyoming Seminary business college.3<\/a>\u00a0 He graduated in 1916 from the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Wharton Extension School of Finance in Wilkes-Barre and worked for a time in his father\u2019s Nanticoke insurance and real estate office.4<\/a>\u00a0 He was serving in the R.O.T.C. at the Madison Barracks in New York when he was accepted for aviation training in June of 1917.5<\/a>\u00a0 He attended Cornell ground school<\/a> and graduated August 25, 1917.6<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with three quarters of his Cornell classmates, Brader was selected for training in Italy and thus sailed as a member of the 150 man \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment\u201d to England on the Carmania<\/i>. \u00a0When they docked at Liverpool at the beginning of October they learned that they were not to go to Italy after all, but to train with the R.F.C. in England. \u00a0They attended ground school (again) at Oxford. \u00a0On November 3, 1917, Brader, along with most of the rest of the detachment, left for machine gun school at Harrowby Camp, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire. \u00a0There Brader shared a hut with Wendell Ellison Borncamp, Ralf Andrews Crookston, Burr Watkins Leyson, Clark Brockway Nichol, Donald Swett Poler, Hilary Baker Rex, and Donald Andrew Wilson. \u00a0Halfway through the course, when fifty of the cadets were posted to flying schools, Lloyd Ludwig moved into the hut as well.7<\/a>\u00a0 Borncamp, Brader, Ludwig, Poler, and Wilson, along with Melville Folsom Webber, would continue as a group in their training postings.8<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
Brader, from a photo <\/a>of the winning team at the Grantham Thanksgiving Day football match.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On November 29, 1917, the Grantham cadets celebrated Thanksgiving in great style, with many of the men who were already at flying schools coming in to join them. \u00a0Festivities included a football game between the \u201cUnfits\u201d and the \u201cHardly Ables.\u201d9<\/a>\u00a0 Brader played with Ludwig on the winning \u201cUnfits\u201d team; Ludwig wrote in his diary that evening that \u201cMac [Maloney], Kerk, Brader and Hardin played great games.\u201d \u00a0Both Joseph Raymond Payden and Clayton Knight kept copies of a photo\u00a0showing players, including Brader, from the winning team. 10<\/a><\/p>\n

On December 3, according to a list compiled by second Oxford detachment member Fremont Cutler Foss, Brader, along with Borncamp, Ludwig, Poler, Webber, and Wilson, was posted to No. 51 Squadron at Marham in Norfolk.11<\/a>\u00a0 The squadron was tasked with defending this part of England from Zeppelin raids but, like other home defense squadrons, did its share of pilot instruction. \u00a0Ludwig noted in his diary: \u201cAll the machines here are FE2B\u2019s and as none of them are dual control machines; we will not be able to learn to fly here.\u201d12<\/a><\/p>\n

Brader was apparently posted along with Ludwig and the other four cadets to Newmarket and No. 192 N.T. [Night Training] Squadron in mid-December 1917, where, again, according to Ludwig\u2019s diary, flying opportunities were very limited. \u00a0From there at the end of the month they were sent to Gosport, where, finally, they began serious training, initially on Avros, and then on S.E.5s. \u00a0There were also opportunities for theater, dinners, and dances at nearby Portsmouth and Southsea. \u00a0Ludwig records various such outings in January and February 1918 with \u201cGeorge\u201d and \u201cGeorge and Don,\u201d presumably referring to George Brader and Don Poler.<\/p>\n

Brader\u2019s very sketchy R.A.F. service record includes the annotation \u201cGrad: C.F.S. 15-2-18,\u201d \u00a0i.e., graduated from this stage of R.F.C. training.13<\/a>\u00a0 Around this time he was recommended for his commission; Pershing\u2019s cable forwarding the recommendation is dated March 16, 1918 (there was typically a delay between the initial recommendation and the cable); the confirming cable from Washington is dated April 6, 1918.14<\/a> The apparently dilatory process involved in getting men their commissions was frustrating for all concerned.<\/p>\n

Assuming Brader\u2019s training continued to parallel that of Ludwig and Poler, he would have been at Castle Bromwich sometime in February. \u00a0At some point he moved on to Turnberry in Scotland. \u00a0There is a cryptic notation, \u201c88 Sqdn,\u201d on his R.A.F. service record; perhaps he was to be posted to this squadron, which left for France, equipped with Bristol Fighters, in April of 1918.15<\/a>\u00a0 However, Brader died at Turnberry on April 5, 1917. \u00a0He was \u201ccarrying out gunnery practice\u201d in S.E.5a C1762. \u00a0He made an \u201coutward spin at 150 feet [and the] mach[ine] spun into ground with engine on and caught fire on impact.\u201d \u00a0A court of inquiry determined that the crash was \u201cdue to an error of judgment in that he turned down wind with insufficient bank too near the ground, this error was probably due to his mistaking ground speed for air speed, the wind being fairly strong.\u201d16<\/a><\/p>\n

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Brader was buried in Doune Cemetery in Girvan; his friend Anderson recalled visiting the grave there in the 1950s.17<\/a>\u00a0 Brader is one of four Americans commemorated on the Turnberry War Memorial, a dramatic \u201cdouble Celtic Cross erected by the people of Kirkoswald Parish in 1923 to honour those airmen stationed at Turnberry Air Field who died during the First World War.\u201d18<\/a><\/p>\n

mrsmcq May 16, 2017<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Notes<\/h3>\n

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

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1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Brader\u2019s place and date of birth are taken from Ancestry.com, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918<\/i>, record for George Atherton Brader. \u00a0The photo was passed down in Brader\u2019s family; a copy was kindly sent to me by his great-niece, Elizabeth Spaciano.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See entry on George G. Brader in Harvey and Smith, A History of Wilkes-Barr\u00e9<\/i>, vol. 6, p. 373. \u00a0On the Braders, see also Hayden, Hand, and Jordan, Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys Pennsylvania<\/i>, vol. 2, pp. 349\u201350.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNanticoke Boy Killed in England.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cFirst Graduating Class of Wharton Extension School of Finance\u201d and \u201cNanticoke Boy Killed in England.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTo Enlarge Madison Camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGround School Graduations [for August 25, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ludwig, Diary, November 19, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0I infer this from Ludwig\u2019s diary and from Poler\u2019s remarks recorded in Sloan and Hocutt, \u201cOne of the \u2018Warbirds\u2019,\u201d p. 21.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Chalaire, \u201cThanksgiving Day with the Aviators Abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The photo, with most of the men identified, appears on p. 199 of Kilduff, \u201cClayton Knight\u2014Artist & Airman.\u201d \u00a0It also appears on p. 37 of Payden, J.R.: Joseph R. Payden, 1915-1925<\/i>. \u00a0Stanbery also kept a photo of his team, the winning \u201cUnfits,\u201d ready for the kick off; I am grateful to Stanbery\u2019s great niece, Barbara Pepper, for forwarding a copy of it to me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Foss, Papers, \u201cCadets of Italian Detachment Posted Dec 3rd<\/sup>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ludwig, Diary, December 4, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The National Archives (United Kingdom), Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918\u20131919<\/i>, record for\u00a0George A. Brader. \u201cC.F.S.\u201d stands for Central Flying School, which was at Upavon, but C.F.S. graduation apparently came to designate a stage in flying training regardless of location; a similar notation appears in the R.A.F. service record of the much better documented Callahan, who did not train at Upavon. \u00a0See also Hooper, Somewhere in France<\/i>, letter of February 14, 1918.\u00a0 See\u00a0here<\/a> for the R.F.C. graduation requirements; I find no similar document indicating the requirements for a commission, but there was an understanding that a pilot had to have flown twenty hours solo; see, for example, Hooper,\u00a0Somewhere in France<\/em>, letters of December 28, 1917, and January 31 and February 14, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegrams 739-S and 1049-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Barrass, \u201cNo 86 – 90 Squadron Histories.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The details of the accident are from an R.A.F. incident casualty card; see \u201cBrader, G. A. (George Atherton).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cNanticoke Boy Killed in England,\u201d and Gillon, Geoffrey, \u201cPvt George Atherton Brader.\u201d On Anderson, see Mallahan, \u201cShot with Luck!\u201d p. 156.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTurnberry War Memorial.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Kingston, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1893 \u2013 Turnberry, Scotland, April 5, 1918).1 The Braders were of German descent but had lived in Pennsylvania for several generations when Brader was born; his father was a \u201cleading figure in real estate and insurance circles in Luzerne County.\u201d2 After attending high school in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, Brader studied at the … Continue reading “George Atherton Brader”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589,"parent":30,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-516","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/516","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=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7690,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/516\/revisions\/7690"}],"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\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}