In the glorious summer of 1926 two small Cove schoolboys were out on the common, just south of Ball Hill, busily getting some practical work done for their nature studies.

They came upon a bird’s nest perched at the far end of a low, bushy branch on a Scots pine tree.

To confirm that this was indeed the nest of a mistle thrush they needed to see the eggs by climbing on each other’s shoulders, which resulted in some dive bombing by an angry bird.

From their extended height the boys could see in the distance, half hidden in deep heather, two white crosses.

The boys didn’t know that those white crosses marked the spot where an early aviator and his passenger were killed in their aircraft 13 years before.

The two simple crosses, lying flush to the ground, toe-to-toe, were unmarked.

At that time the name Cody would have meant little to the boys, but they soon found out, living, as they did, close to Cody Road.

Most Rafborough roads had been given the names of famous early fliers — Goodden, Busk, Fowler and their road, Keith Lucas.

What is left to remind us of that day more than 80 years ago?

One of the two boys is still here, the thick heather is now smooth mown grass and that Scots pine then 20ft tall, is now more than 60ft.

There are no signs of the cement crosses — but evidence may still be found just below the present surface.

What there is now to remind us of those momentous times is that rather spindly metal mock-up of a single pine tree in Qinetiq Drive. Still standing are a grove of sturdy 150-year-old oaks into which the stricken plane fell.

The proud Scots pine that at the time bore silent witness above two battered bodies has expanded to a mature 9ft girth.

These, the only live survivors of a tragedy, are unmarked and have no protection in law, so could be cut down at any time by the present occupiers.

Surely these trees justify a tree preservation order and perhaps some small perma-nent sign of their history, as the original Cody trees?

Incidentally, the ‘Death of a flying Cody’ story does not end at these two lonely cement crosses on Cove Common.

The same name is carved on a tall headstone in Perth Cemetery (China Wall) in Ypres, Belgium, Plot 16, Row C Grave 1.

It reads Second Lieutenant

S F Cody, Royal Flying Corps. Died January 1917.

Fuller details might read: This was Samuel Franklyn Leslie Cody, 41 Sqdn, Royal Flying Corps. Killed in aerial combat January 23 1917. Age 21.

The only son of Lela M Cody of Vale Croft, Ash Vale, and the late aircraft pioneer Samuel F Cody. Husband of Maude H Cody of ‘Notre Dame’ in Church Road, Aldershot.