Dance king, WWI pilot, Fort Worth favorite. A training accident killed him in 1918

Before World War I, Vernon and Irene Castle were the toast of the stage on both sides of the Atlantic.

They were the original “beautiful people,” the first “power couple” before there was a Brad and Angelina.

As a dance team they popularized the foxtrot and the tango. With their athleticism and elegance, they made dancing respectable.

Then came the war. Vernon, 28 and an experienced pilot, enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He served with distinction on the Western Front. Then in 1917 Capt. Castle was called home to teach flying to a new generation of pilots.

While they were apart, Irene turned to acting in silent films.

In October 1917, Vernon and the No. 84 Canadian Training Squadron were sent from Camp Mohawk, Ontario, to Fort Worth to train in the balmier Texas climate. They took up residence at Camp Taliaferro, carved out of the prairie at Benbrook.

It was a spartan, desolate home for the irrepressible playboy, though he managed to bring along his Stutz Bearcat roadster and pet monkey.

The locals were a bit put off by the reserved Canadian boys, but they were charmed by Vernon. He gushed to a reporter that he really liked Texans whom he called “Westerners.”

Aside from a disdain for rules and regulations, he was an excellent teacher. On his own, he was a daredevil who took too many risks in the under-powered Curtiss JN4 “Jennies” they flew, which had a top speed of 75 mph. With America in the war after April 1917, he also trained American boys.

Though the newspapers played up Vernon and Irene’s separation as a mutual wartime sacrifice, the truth was something else, according to recent biographer Eve Golden. Both had taken up lovers, and they quietly filed for divorce, intending to announce it after the war.

During his stay in Fort Worth, there were rumors that Vernon was involved with a local girl, Inez Childers. None of this mattered after Feb. 15, 1918.

That was Vernon’s last day.

Word had come down that he was being recalled to Canada to become commandant at a new RFC flying school. In spite of his imminent departure, he continued to train his current crop of cadets.

On that Friday morning he went up with an American cadet, R.O. Peters. Usually, the instructor took the back seat on training flights, but this time Vernon grabbed the front seat while his pupil sat in back. He did not bother to fasten his seat belt as regulations required.

The training flight went well until they were coming in to land. Peters brought them down on top of another plane taxiing to take off. Neither pilot saw the other until it was too late, and Vernon’s view was blocked by the location of his seat.

At the last minute, as the plane’s wheels touched the rudder of the other aircraft, Vernon tried to pull up into a half loop, but he was too late. Their plane dove straight into the ground.

Sitting in the front seat with no seat belt, Vernon’s body slammed into the engine, causing fatal head injuries. He was barely alive when pried out of the wreckage and died in the field hospital, the 31st casualty at the military flying fields around Fort Worth. Cadet Peters escaped almost unscratched.

Fort Worth gave Vernon Castle a first-class sendoff. His body lay in state on the morning of Feb. 16 before an Episcopalian service preached by the pastor of St. Andrew’s. Then the body was taken in a grand military cortege to the T&P station for transportation to New York City.

The British-flag-draped coffin proceeded from Robertson’s Funeral Parlor at 10th and Throckmorton uptown then back down Main Street to the station, escorted by an honor guard of 250 American and British fliers.

Thousands of mourners turned out to pay their respects to the fallen hero. Irene met the casket in New York. Vernon was laid to rest in the Bronx’s Woodlawn Cemetery amid statesmen and celebrities.

Fort Worthers immediately started a fund to build a monument to the fallen hero. That was never built, but the city did rename a stretch of North Side Boulevard “Vernon Castle Boulevard,” visited by Irene Castle in November 1922.

Author-historian Richard Selcer is a Fort Worth native and proud graduate of Paschal High and TCU.