Lieut Normal Sworder, Royal Air Force, died of wounds sustained in aerial combat over France on April 17th, 1918. His Luton-born wife Emily Murial was living at Burnham, Maidenhead, at the time.

A letter written by his Major to Emily said the aircraft in which Lieut Sworder was an observer was attacked by five enemy machines. The pilot had his right leg fractured by a bullet and lost control of his machine. Her husband was all the time firing at the enemy and got off in all 300 rounds, although himself wounded.

The pilot then regained control of the aircraft and made a landing. The Major said he saw both airmen within an hour of the fight at an advanced dressing station. Lieut Sworder died shortly after the landing, from a bullet wound in the abdomen.

Born on January 4th, 1887, at Stapleford-Tawny of an old Essex family, Norman Sworder had married Emily Muriel Wright, youngest daughter of Luton JP John I. Wright, of 43 Stockwood Crescent. The ceremony was held at Christ Church, Luton, on January 8th, 1916.

Norman had first joined the Navy as a cadet at the turn of the century. In 1913 he followed his parents who had emigrated to British Columbia in Canada and at the outbreak of war enlisted in Lord Strathcoma's Horse and went to France with the British Columbia Regiment Canadian Infantry. He served in the trenches before being wounded and invalided to England. On recovery he was attached to the Royal Air Force and had been in France for only about a month as an airman when he met his death.