Charles W. Plummer

Plummer was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on May 25, 1890 to Henry and Alice Plummer, and he grew up on the farms of Potomska, a village near Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Plummer attended the Powder Point School and then public schools in Sharon, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Morristown School (now Morristown-Beard School) in Morristown, New Jersey in 1910. Plummer then received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1914.[2] He briefly worked for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company before enlisting with Battery A of the 101st Field Artillery Regiment in Massachusetts of the American Expeditionary Forces.

On August 11, 1918, Plummer helped drive off more than a dozen biplanes of the German Air Force before five German airplanes shot down his plane near Fismes.[3] These actions helped Plummer's squadron capture 30 critical photographs of German enforcements[4] and earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the American military's second highest honor.[5] General John J. Pershing awarded Plummer the medal in the name of President Woodrow Wilson in October 1918.[6] In an earlier mission, Plummer received France's Croix de Guerre for defending aviators from his squadron despite receiving 30 bullets in his own airplane. He also received a medal from the Aero Club of America that recognized his aviation achievements.[7]

Plummer and his pilot received burial on a knoll overlooking a valley in Chierry, France. The grave carries a marking of a propeller blade, customary for many aviators killed in World War I.[8] Honoring his son and brother, Henry Plummer named a bridge in Dartmouth, Massachusetts the Plummer Memorial Bridge.[9] Spanning the Little River, the bridge connects Little River Road with Potomska Road.[10]

Plummer joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity, during his days at Harvard, and he played polo. The book Polo in the United States: A History identified Plummer as one of two notable polo players killed in action during World War I: "American polo players were also killed in the conflict, most notably Maj. Augustus Peabody Gardner, a polo player from Myopia Hunt Club, and Charles W. Plummer, 88th Aero Squad, a Harvard graduate shot down in his plane over the Vesle River in August 1918."[11] After Plummer's death, James F. Clark, a former 101st captain, gave a cup in his honor to Boston's Indoor Polo League. (Clark was a starter for a local polo team.)[12] The winner of the league's annual championship received the Plummer Memorial Cup as its prize.[13]