City of Prague offers grave of American James McCreary who died in 1919 for adoption

The City of Prague is offering the grave of American James B. McCreary, who died in a bizarre accident in 1919, as part of its grave adoption programme. McCreary, a 25-year-old from Buffalo, New York, had come to Europe to fight in WWI, served as an ambulance driver and later joined France's Service Aeronautique and worked as a camera operator. He was killed when an Italian hydroplane he was filming struck him as he stood in a boat on the Vltava River near Prague’s centre. The aircraft had just passed under a bridge when it swerved and fatally hit McCreary, who died shortly after.  His grave is among 18 recently added to the city’s adoption list. Other names include notable Czechs like footballer Josef Bican, writer Karolina Světlá, poet Josef Kainar, and engineer Vratislav Pasovský, designer of the Petřín Lookout Tower.