ohn Cameron Hume-Storer was a Canadian who joined Army ranks in 1914 and served for two years in the trenches of the Great war, hauling munitions as an officer in an ammunition train to the front lines. A constant companion in this dangerous work was his Colt Government Model .45 pistol, inscribed by Hume-Storer, who had been a jeweler prior to enlisting. Applying for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, he soloed in December and as a newly promoted Captain, took off in his biplane on February 17, 1917, on a routine patrol from Ramsgate to Dover.
And that’s where the mystery comes in. Captain Hume-Storer flew into limbo on that cold, clear February morning and was never seen again. No trace of his plane’s wreckage was ever found. Yet his well-worn semi-automatic pistol was found in an American gunshop a few years ago by one of the NRA museum’s curators. Did the Captain leave this handgun behind with a trusted friend? Or it is the only remaining clue to his mysterious disappearance?
