| Capt Frank Crossley Griffiths Broome
|
||
| Vickers test pilot - he and Stanley Cockerell (q.v.) were known as the 'Heavenly Twins'; Frank served under Stanley in WWI; when Frank married Miss Ismay Lermitte in Colchester in 1920, Capt. S. Cockerell, A.F.C., was best man.
He and CJQ Brand were in the same squadron in WWI. In 1920 the Heavenly Twins were the pilots of the attempt, organised by The Times, to make the first flight from Cairo to the Cape. The Vimy Commercial aeroplane left Brooklands on January 24 but crashed at Tabora [Tanganyika] on February 27. They finally reached the Cape "after a series of undeserved misfortunes". Frank Crossley Griffiths Broome - born in London (St Pancras) in 1892. He enlisted in the Army Service Corps. Won DFC, and AFC.
Youngest son of Frank Broome, and lived at Winterbourne, Weybridge.
He married Ismay Lermitte, daughter of Lt Col Lermitte (deceased) of Woodhouse, Great Horkesley at All Saints Church on August 17th 1920.
At the wedding ceremony, the cake was adorned with the silver Vickers Vimy, which had been presented to him by The Times newspaper, to commemorate his 1920 Africa flight (in Silver Queen II) The purpose was to test the feasibility of the Cape to Cairo route, and was sponsored by the newspaper. The plane crashed, and it sounds as though the expedition was an arduous one. Later the same crew of Captain Cockerell, Captain Broome and ex Sgt Major James Wyatt crashed in a seaplane in March 15th 1922, about four miles from Hastings. Broome also flew with 112 Sqn, based at Throwley. On the night of 19/20 May 1918, he was one of dozens of pilots that took off against a wave of Gothas and Giants which attacked the UK. Broome didn't see them, but fellow sqn pilot CJQ Brand bagged a Gotha that night.
|
photo: 1917, when a Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps, aged 25
