Career
He was killed on 16 August 1914 in a flying while serving with the Royal Flying Corps in France, making him the first British Army officer to die in France during World War I.
On 12 September 1911, Perry gained his Royal Aeronautical Club certificate on the Barber "Valkyrie" and became the 130th person in the United Kingdom to learn to fly. He was then employed as a Royal Aircraft Factory pilot and carried out a considerable amount of flying at Brooklands on a Burgess-Wright. In 1912, he worked with Thomas Sopwith at his flying school at Brooklands, where amongst others he trained Hugh Trenchard.
With the outbreak of World War I, Copland Perry was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
He flew to France with the Royal Flying Corps and was killed in a flying accident on 16 August 1914, making him possibly the first officer to die in the Great War. Copland Perry was buried in the Saint Acheul Cemetery in Amiens.