Canadian aviator and World War I ace (1893-1944) officially credited with bringing down the Red Baron, though later investigations indicated that the kill was most likely made by an Australian anti-aircraft machine gunner. ALS signed “Roy,” five pages, 5.5 x 7, Royal Naval Air Service letterhead, July 13, 1918. Addressed from the "School of Aerial Fighting" in Marske, a lengthy and fascinating handwritten letter from Roy Brown to his father, discussing his present work and his tentative future plans, in part: “You will be wondering what has happened to me as it is over two weeks since I have written. I was sick as a dog with Spanish influenza which everyone has been having. I had quite a temperature for a while but am better now…Stearne and I are both here as fighting instructors. Our duties are to teach pupils how to fight single seaters and how to attack two-seaters with single seaters. We also have to teach them how to fly formation and what are the methods of attacking troops on the ground. The work should be very interesting. How long we shall be here I have not the faintest idea. This place seems to be quite a back-water once you draft into it you are apt to stay in it for some time.
While I was on leave I heard that there was to be some change take place soon for Canadians in the R.A.F. What it is I do not know but am anxious to hear as it must mean something important. Whatever the change is when it does take place I am going to try to get a permanent commission. The present situation of the war, as far as I can see, points more than ever to a much longer struggle than we foresaw a year ago. That means it is going to be a long time before I shall be able to get out of the service, presuming I remain physically, even if I don’t wish to do so. The longer I stay in it the harder it will be to ever make a change. I shall have forgotten, if I have not done so already, all that can ever be of use to me in a business way. In view of this the best thing I can see for me to do is to try to get a permanent commission in the service. If a Canadian service is formed I shall certainly try to get in that but if not I shall try to get it in the R.A.F…I do not expect you will approve this idea but I think it is the best way as one can never tell what the situation may be when it is all over and if I am permanent I shall always be able to stay with the service if I feel I am useless for anything else.” In fine condition.
Little did he know at the time, but Brown's future plans would soon be lain before him. Two days after writing this letter, Brown was involved in a bad air crash that forced him to spend five months in the hospital. The incident compelled Brown to leave the RAF in 1919 and he returned to Canada, where he would eventually marry and find work in a variety of industries; he founded a small airline (General Airways Limited in Amos, Quebec), worked as the editor of Canadian Aviation, and later purchased and ran a dairy farm.
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