Francis McLaren

The Honourable Francis Walter Stafford McLaren (16 June 1886 – 30 August 1917) was a British Member of Parliament killed in World War I in a flying accident.

A younger son of Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, he attended Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. Entering politics, he was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Spalding in January 1910. Between 1910 and 1915, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lewis Vernon Harcourt.

On 20 July 1911, he married Barbara Jekyll, daughter of Colonel Sir Herbert Jekyll (KCMG); they had two children:

He volunteered at the outbreak of war and was commissioned with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He served with Royal Naval Air Service's Armoured Car Division at Gallipoli. He contracted dysentery there and was eventually invalided out of the Royal Flying Corps on 30 December 1916. However, he appealed and returned to the RFC.

McLaren was a second lieutenant and trainee pilot in Number 18 Training Squadron (RNVR) when he died on 30 August 1917, following a flying accident during training at RAF Montrose. His aeroplane, an AVRO 504A, nosedived into the sea off Montrose. He was pulled unconscious from the wreckage but died of internal injuries. He was buried in Busbridge churchyard, Godalming, Surrey on 5 September.

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