Lieutenant Edwin Claude Bromley was a Canadian World War I flying ace

Flying ace

A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...

 credited with twelve aerial victories. Bromley piloted a two-seated Bristol F.2 Fighter

Bristol F.2 Fighter

The Bristol F.2 Fighter was a British two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War flown by the Royal Flying Corps. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter or popularly the "Brisfit" or "Biff". Despite being a two-seater, the F.2B proved to be an agile aircraft...

 for 22 Squadron. The observers that manned the rear guns for Bromley were John Howard Umney

John Howard Umney

Second Lieutenant John Howard Umney was an English flying ace from World War I. He flew as a gunner/observer in the rear seat of Bristol F.2 Fighters, and was credited with 13 official aerial victories.-World War I:...

, for ten victories, and Charles George Gass

Charles George Gass

Squadron Leader Charles George Gass MC was the highest scoring observer ace during the First World War, with a total of 39 victories scored serving as a gunner flying with various pilots...

, for two.

World War I service

Bromley enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

Canadian Expeditionary Force

The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were divided into field formation in France, where they were organized first into separate divisions and later joined together into a single...

 while in Montreal on 17 September 1915. His enlistment papers denote his father, living in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, as his next of kin. He was five feet seven inches tall, with dark hair and complexion, and gray eyes. He joined the Fourth Overseas University Company. His first overseas assignment was as a sapper

Sapper

A sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...

 in the Canadian engineers.

Bromley flew solo on 16 July 1917, in England. On 17 October 1917, he was commissioned a Temporary Second Lieutenant as a Flying Officer

Flying Officer

Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...

 in the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

. He was subsequently assigned to 22 Squadron. On 8 November 1917, he and his observer were badly shot about in a dogfight and forced to land.

Bromley's first success in aerial warfare took place on 6 May 1918, when he drove a German Albatros D.III

Albatros D.III

The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service and the Austro-Hungarian Air Service during World War I. The D.III was flown by many top German aces, including Manfred von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, Erich Löwenhardt, Kurt Wolff, and Karl Emil Schäfer...

 down out of control. He ran off a string of a dozen victories in little less than a month, with his last wins coming on 5 June. His final total included five enemy planes destroyed, and seven driven down out of control.

After his military service

Bromley returned to North America aboard the S. S. Scandinavian, disembarking in New York on 20 July 1918. After family visits, he returned to employment managing the Simmons mattress factory in Calgary. He married his fiance, Elizabeth Ayler, in October 1920. They had a daughter together three years later.

In April 1928, Bromley went missing for two weeks. His body was eventually found on the Simmons factory roof in a crouched position. The cause of death was unknown. His death date was determined to be 14 April 1928. Edwin Claude Bromley was buried in Burnsland Cemetery in Calgary.

Reference

• Shores, Christopher F. et al. Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920. Grub Street, 1990. ISBN 0-948817-19-4, 9780948817199.