Aviator

One of the original 16 pilots of Imperial Airways in 1924

b. Harleston, Norfolk 29 Apr 1893

based Croydon

September 1925: "Mr G. P. Olly, another Imperial Airways pilot, has spent 5500 hours in the air, and has flown the English Channel no fewer than 1500 times."

March 1926: "DYING SON'S SOS. FATHER'S FLIGHT PLAN FAILS. Captain G. P. Olley, an Imperial Airways pilot, on arriving at Croydon Aerodrome yesterday from Southampton, related the story of a father's efforts to comply with a wireless broadcast SOS which was relayed across Europe. The SOS was sent out from a French station, asking Mr Mauger to go at once to his son, who was dangerously ill at Marseilles. It was relayed by London, and picked up in Jersey, where friends of Mr. Mauger gave him the news. He at once telephoned Imperial Airways, and hired a fast Napier D.H. express to meet him at Southampton and fly to his son at Marseilles. Rough weather in the Channel delayed his arrival at Southampton until the following evening, when he heard that his son was dead."

March 1927: "Captain J. P. Olley, an Imperial Airways pilot, who began to fly in 1915, has carried his 10,000th passenger."

August 1927: "AIR LINER'S SPEED RECORD Mr. G. P. Olley, an Imperial Airways pilot, arrived at Croydon aerodrome in an 8-seater air liner at 5.39 p.m. yesterday, having flown from Southampton Water in 26 minutes. This is a new record for the 70 miles journey, and average speed of the Vickers-Napier machine was over 161 miles hour. The aeroplane, which is'in regular use on Continental routes, left Hamble at 5.13 p.m."

August 1928: "Captain G P Olley, an Imperial Airways pilot, created a new record by flying non-stop from London to Belfast in 4 and a half hours. His machine had been chartered to take special pistons for a motor-car running in the Tourist Trophy race. He did not leave London until after 5 o'clock, the last part of the flight across the sea, and his landing at Belfast at 9:50, being accomplished in darkness".

Jan 1932: "EARL OF INCHCAPE'S ILLNESS. Son to Make 3000-Mile Air Dash to his Bedside. A 3000-mile air dash from Cairo to the bedside of the Earl of Inchcape, who is seriously ill in London, will be commenced at dawn to-day by Viscount Glenapp the earl's son and heir.

Captain G. P. Olley, the Imperial Airways pilot, has arrived in Cairo with an air liner which had been chartered from Imperial Airways, having flown from London via Italy, Malta, and the north coast of Africa in order to bring Lord Glenapp to London.

Lord Glenapp, who was travelling by P. and O. liner from India, as the result of a wireless message to the liner, was to leave it when it berthed last night at Port Said and proceed by train to Cairo. He hopes arrive in London on Monday evening."

Gordon left Imperial Airways in 1934 and started his own air charter company, called Olley Air Service Ltd.

photo: 1929

b. c.1897. From Podington, Northants.

Schneider Trophy pilot (and World Air Speed Record Holder) in 1929, Director of Flying Training in WWII;

d. 4th April 1943 from natural causes.

photo: 1931, aged 21

a Speedway Rider from Durham. Yep; a speedway rider. Apparently, [it says here], a rider in the historic 1936 World Championship Final. [see also Arthur Franklyn].

"Mr Ormston has already used his Westland Widgeon on several occasions as a means of travelling between one speedway track and another, or from Wembley to his home at Coxhoe, Co. Durham."

d. 2006.

 b. 1910 in Dublin; Short Service Commission then Flt-Lt in the RAF (40 Sqn at Upper Heyford) in 1929-31, transferred to the Reserve List (Class C) in May 1934.

He joined Imperial in mid-1935 and "quickly proved himself a civil pilot of just the right calibre."

He was killed, together with Australian Stanley Miles Fergusson, and the two wireless operators, when Vickers Vellox G-ABKY crashed into the back gardens of houses in Hillside Gardens, Wallington, shortly after it had taken off from Croydon Airport on a 'technical' flight at 2 a.m. on August 10, 1936.

His home address was given as Craig-na-Baa, Blackrock, Dublin; he had a wife, Sheelagh, and a daughter Cherry, who "have been living at Worthing."

"Capt Fergusson, who was about 32, had "flown a great deal in America". 'Fergie' had recently gained the First Class Air Navigators Certificate, and was "looking forward to flying on the trans-Atlantic service".

The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. 'Flight' said "The unhappy accident to Imperial Airways' Velox(sic) has cast a gloom over the airport, for both Orr and Fergusson were universally popular."

  1917, aged 19, when a 2nd Lieut on the General List

'Freddy', b. 25 Feb 1898 in London

His father Simon came to England from Germany in the 1880s and, "conceiving an affection for British institutions", became a Britsh citizen in 1897. He then founded a company making ladies' handbags. The firm was subject to anti-German propaganda by their English trade rivals in 1915, but Simon sued them, successfully, and was awarded £250 damages.

Freddy and his brother Bobby then went to Officer Training Corps near London, and Freddy joined 29 Sqn RAF. Flying behind the German lines on 16 October 1917, he was attacked by 5 planes, shot down and taken prisoner. His account of his time as a prisoner-of-war is in the National Archives, and his diaries, some letters and photos are in the RAF Museum.

Of the Ingelmunster collecting station, he says "we were locked in our rooms most of the time, and we received the same food as the German soldiers, but it was poor to us"..."I have reasons to believe that there were microphones in use. The officers were taken out one by one to be interrogated... we naturally talked of what we didn't tell, and could be overheard."

On the train to Germany, "I can speak German, and insisted to the German officer commanding at the station that I was an officer and should at least go 2nd class"..."we had a little coffee, but no food. No heating in the train - very cold".

At Burg, "we got no parcels, and the consequence was that we got very weak and ill, as we could not do on the German food"...."we were always shouted at, instead of being spoken to in a civil way".

Transferred to Halle Camp with all the other British prisoners, he escaped in January 1918 but was caught on the Dutch border. "I had no trial, and was kept in solitary confinement for a month".

Later the camp commandant "shouted at me for about five minutes, and told me I was a German, and asked me whether I had been born in Germany. I said 'No, thank God', and he gave me three days' cells without reading, writing or smoking, and in his temper tore the bedclothes off the bed. A very violent man."

"Our great weapon was to laugh. The Germans cannot stand ridicule."

The original documents can be seen here and here

He escaped from Stralsund Camp, Germany, on 12th October 1918 and arrived back in England on 31 October (so, 12 days before the Armistice).

He was killed 14 Feb 1922 in a flying accident at Cuatro Ventos Air Base in Madrid, in a Bristol aeroplane which had been acquired by Spain. He was buried at the Willesden (Jewish) Cemetery in London.

Bobby died 18 Jun 1927 aged 27; Simon on 10 July 1938.

Their mother, their surviving brother Ernest and sister Martine put 'In Memoriam' notices for both Freddy and Bobby in the newspapers, right up until 1946. They were obviously both sadly missed.

b. 28 Oct 1895

d. 29 Mar 1958, aged 62

Clyde Pangborn - Wikipedia

Raymond John Paul Parer

   b. 18 February 1894, in Melbourne, the second of seven sons.

Joined the RFC during WWI, but a medical officer had insisted that Ray's heart 'was not strong' and he wasn't allowed to fly above 10,000 ft.

The only person to compete in the Air Races from England to Australia in both 1919 and 1934.

For the 1919 Race, he and John Cowie Macintosh persuaded Scottish millionaire distiller Peter Dawson to give them the money for an aeroplane, but only dared ask enough for an F.E.2b (although they would have preferred a DH.9). When Mr Dawson heard this, he scolded them and gave them another cheque. Battling their way through delays, innumerable forced landings and hair-raising exploits, they finally arrived nearly 8 months later, skint and with empty fuel tanks, only the second crew ever to make the journey.

In 1927, when the New Guinea Gold Rush began, he shipped a DH.4 there and set up the Bulolo Goldfields Aeroplane Service.

Tried to enlist in the RAAF in 1941, but was deemed too old and joined the Merchant Navy instead.

He was 'by nature shy and retiring' but clearly, never gave up - hence his nickname 'Battling'.

Spent the last 20 years of his life farming near Brisbane, and died there 5^th July 1967, aged 73.

  1929, aged 27

a Sugar Planter and Merchant from Liverpool;

RAF Wing Commander in WWII (Digby Section in 1940); Group Captain AAF from 1946;

d. 1959 and is buried on the Isle of Wee Cumbrae, Ayrshire, Scotland

  1932, aged 21

an Aircraft Engineer from Hertfordshire

 b. 26 September 1904 in Amsterdam

Trained in the Dutch Air Force, and one of the first Dutch pilots to qualify for a navigator's licence, he joined K.L.M. in 1929 and flew on its mail routes, chiefly as commander of Amsterdam-Batavia liners.

In 1933 he spent four months in America, nightflying over various routes and studying their operation.

d. 20 Oct 1948, aged 44, when the K.L.M. Constellation airliner he was piloting on a flight from Amsterdam to New York crashed and burst into flames on a farm near Tarbolton, Ayrshire near Prestwick Airport.

Joan Mary Parsons
RAeC 1933	1938

Christened Alys Helen Mary Parsons, but always known as 'Joan', and sometimes spelt her first name as 'Ailiss'

LRAM is 'Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music', which is a licence to teach music.

  5ft 7in tall, green eyes

Father: Rev. Randolph Cecil Parsons (d. 1941), Mother: Florence Emily [Ashton] (d. 1946) 

Her elder brother, John Cecil Lawrence Parsons, b. 1905 in Bournemouth, also had a pilot's licence:

 1934

prev: 'Domestic At Home'; piano teacher

She advertised in the Leamington Spa Courier, 8 July 1930: "MISS JOAN PARSONS, L.R.A.M. (PIANISTE). Pupil of Mr. Evlyn Howard-Jones. Is open to Public and Private Engagement and visits Pupils. Address; 19, Avenue Road, Leamington Spa." 

Having gained her Royal Aero Club Certificate in 1933, she was "thwarted in her ambition to follow a career as a commercial air pilot" as, when she had put in the necessary 200 hours solo and took the examination. she was not passed. She later said that, on insisting upon an explanation, she was told that 'although her flying was up to the required standard, her health was the obstacle". 

Nothing daunted. she took up "an intensive course of physical culture, and eventually improved her health sufficiently to be able to pass the test. But then, having temporarily relinquished her solo flying, she discovered, to her great disappointment, that she was unable to fulfill the condition of the requisite number of hours in the air."

She then worked for a while at Hayling Island aerodrome.

 In 1938, she used a legacy "from an elderly relative" to buy G-ADNL, a Miles M.5 Sparrowhawk, first registered 12 Aug 1935 to Phillips & Powis Aircraft Ltd.

 G-ADNL in 1938

It had competed in the King's Cup in 1935 (flown by Frederick Miles himself), coming 11th/29, 1936 (flown by Patrick Maxwell, an Instructor at the Phillips and Powis Civil Training School), coming 9th/26, and 1937, (flown by Wing-Cmdr Frederick William Stent, who died 28 Jun 1938 in the crash of the Miles M.11C G-AEYI), coming 7th/27.

  G-ADNL in 1935

In May 1938, she started a "lone, and almost unprepared" flight to Cape Town and back. It was her first flight outside England or Scotland.

She left Lympne, without telling anyone except her parents, on 7 May 1938.

Her father said he had absolute faith in his daughter. "I am sure she will accomplish her objective," he said. " She is not out to break records. but to gain experience. She is full of the spirit of adventure. Flying is in her blood."

Major J. E. Bonniksen, of the Leamington, Warwick and District Aero Club, said Miss Parsons, who was taught to fly by Tommy Rose, deserved real encouragement. "She is made of the right stuff," he said.

Things went smoothly to begin with: "... in 75 minutes I arrived at Le Bourget. I cannot describe the thrill I felt as I zoomed over the Channel. 1 thought of Bleriot and all the pioneers of flight who had opened up the pathways of the air — and I felt ashamed when I realised how insignificant I really was."... " After undergoing the usual formalities at Le Bourget, I flew towards St. Etienne and arrived there in a couple of hours. It was raining and I had to spend the night there. Next morning I went on to Marseilles, and 40 minutes later I was at Cannes."

 Then the first hitch: "In Cannes I learned that it was impossible to fly over Rome because of Hitler's visit. That was that! I had to spend two days at Cannes. Eventually I left for Rome at three o'clock in the morning arriving five hours later.  I had no time to lose, so immediately after the customs formalities I took to the air again and at 11 a.m. I was in Athens. What scenery I saw!"

"I continued on my way some minutes after my arrival, and at 2.45 p.m. I landed at Amscat, Lybya. Having a flat tyre, I had five hours to wait. At last I got going again, and landed the same day at Dekheila. I spent the night at :Alexandria before starting off again the next morning for Almaza."

[What she failed to mention is that a) she had to make a forced landing on 19 May, due to shortage of petrol, at an aerodrome at Khalkis, (which she described as being "all ridges") some distance short of Athens, and b) she had only two hours of daylight to fly from Amscat in Libya to Alexandria.]

She then spent a few days sight-seeing in Cairo.

 After that, frankly, it was a catalogue of mishaps...

 She made another forced landing, on 24 May, at Victoria West, running into a barbed wire fence which wrapped itself round the propeller and damaged the fuselage. The local garage mechanics had never worked on an aeroplane before, but eventually fixed it in five days. 

However, she eventually reached Capetown, and stayed there until 1 July when she started back, "following the old Imperial Airways route... she expects to take 8 days. She hopes to reach Broken Hill, Rhodesia, tomorrow"

She left Mpike, in Northern Rhodesia, on 4 July for Mbeya, in Tanganyika Territory.

By the 6th July, the newspapers reported "NATIVES SEARCH FOR MISSING LEAMINGTON WOMAN - Nothing heard of her since Monday - Concern for safety of former music mistress"

 ... until...

9 July 1938: "BRITISH AIRWOMAN STILL STRANDED. Motor Boat Has Not Yet Reached Her. Dar es Salaam. Tanganyika, Friday.

Miss Joan Parsons, the Leamington airwoman. who was found by natives yesterday after she had been missing for three days, is still stranded in the bush near the Rufijii River, some 200 miles north of Mbeya, Tanganyika. Miss Parsons, who came down while on a flight from Capetown to London, is believed to be unhurt, though her plane was wrecked [sic]. The District Officer for Kiberege (Mr. Theodore Pike), well known Irish Rugby international, who has gone to her rescue by motor boat up the Rufiji, has not yet reached her.

An official Government communique issued here to-night says: There has been no further news of Miss Parsons, but this is not surprising as the District Officer has not yet been able reach the position where her aeroplane is reported to have crashed.” An R.A.F. machine left Mbeya to look for her this morning, but visibility was very bad because of cloud and the plane returned to Mbeya."

Her father said "We were getting rather frightened. It was such a shock to hear that Joan was missing and then to hear nothing further"

Her mother added "She will be ordered home. She will not be allowed to go on more flights of this nature"

[Good luck with that...]

By the 12 July, more of the story emerged: "Plane Runway Cut in Bush for Air-Girl. A solitary native road worker who witnessed the landing in the bush of Miss Joan Parsons, the Leamington airwoman, ran 30 miles to inform the district officer, Mr. Theodore Pike. He set off at once by moonlight for the Rufiji River in a motor boat, and is now assisting to cut a runway through the long grass where the plane landed. Miss Parsons may take off for Iringa, 80 miles away. She was given native foods, tea and sugar by Christian natives after landing. She sent no SOS, but merely asked for petrol and oil."

She arrived back at Nairobi on the 15 July and was hoping to leave for the UK the same day, but the "Authorities" insisted that she be escorted over the Sudan, and she had to wait for some RAF machines which were flying to Egypt. 

 She landed back in Lympne on 8 August, then reached home in Leamington Spa on 11 August 1938

Despite the plans which had been made to give her a triumphal return home, bad weather forced a delay to her final leg from Reading, so the civic reception waited for hours, eventually presented the bouquet to her brother and then went home.

Home at last, with Maj. Bonniksen and H C Everitt, of the Leamington Spa and Warwick Aero Club

Afterwards, she said her chief anxiety was "to save sufficient money to make a flight to India"

She had other plans, too:  

2 Sep 1939 - "Miss Parsons is as keen as ever on aviation, and she recently purchased an Airspeed Courier six-seater machine which was used by Sir Alan Cobham on his India flight. The machine is being refitted by the makers, and Miss Parsons will, in all probability, use it for passenger work."

She bought G-ABXN, a 1932 Airspeed AS.5 Courier formerly owned by North Eastern Airways Ltd, based at Croydon:

However, Britain's Declaration of War the very next day put a stop to all that; the aircraft was requisitioned in June 1940 and only lasted until September, when it was scrapped.

Contract Terminated by ATA after 1 month]

"Leamington's Airwoman of African Fame"

"AIRWOMAN FINED FOR QUITTING JOB

Complaint About Workmate "Exaggerated"

Joan Parsons, who made a name for herself 1938 by flying solo to the Cape, was fined £5 to-day at Leamington, Warwickshlre, for falling to comply with a Ministry of National Service direction to work in an aircraft factory. Mr. W. A. Coleman, prosecuting, said that after being at a bench for two days Miss Parsons wrote to the firm complaining that she had been molested by a labourer, who repeatedly jabbed her under the arm. This so played on her nerves that she could not continue, and she left, declining to return for fear of further aggression.

''Of African Fame"

The letter was signed, "Joan Parsons, Leamington's airwoman of African fame." The complaint was grossly exaggerated, said Mr. Coleman. The labourer was a reputable workman, who thought he was encouraging the defendant by a playful act. Gilbert Stackhouse, shop foreman, said the labourer just touched Miss Parsons on the shoulder and said: "It won't be long now." 'I knew what he meant, but she didn't." added witness. "I told her that the man was trying to keep her happy, and instructed him not to go anywhere near her again."

The "Rough Man"

In evidence Miss Parsons said her father was a clergyman. The "rough man" who irritated her wanted to tickle other girl employees. The man leered in her face and was very objectionable. She kept away from the factory because she feared an act of revenge. Mr. Coleman: But surely you have had some experience of the world and meeting people? Miss Parsons: Yes. I have been treated very well abroad, and natives in territories on which I have had forced landings in Africa have looked on me as a goddess”.

 Mr. Overall, defending, said it was not everybody who reacted favourably to being jabbed in the ribs every two or three minutes." - The Yorkshire Post, 8 November 1943

 d 20 Sep 1989 - Weston Super Mare, Somerset, leaving £118,000

[Her Sparrowhawk G-ADNL was later converted into the sole Miles M.77 Sparrowjet:

... and on 13 July 1957, it won the King's Cup with a maximum speed of 228 mph.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Sparrowjet

  1911, aged 20

  1935

An early pioneer (RAeC certificate No 106) and well-known instructor of large numbers of airmen including F G Miles; born 1891 in Great Yarmouth but lived in Shoreham (a road there, and a bus are named after him, it seems, plus a Tiger Moth called 'Spirit of Pashley').

He and his brother started a flying school at the newly-opened Shoreham Aerodrome in 1914, but obviously WWI intervened almost straight away and he became a test pilot for the Admiralty, then flew for Central Aircraft Co in Northolt after the war.

He and F G Miles set up Southern Aircraft Ltd (best known for the 'Martlet').

Chief Instructor to the Southern Aero Club and its successor the South Coast Flying Club.

d. 1969

  1934, aged 29

Miss Burr as was, a lady with her own opinions, particularly about race handicapping, which you can read here:  Air Race Handicapping.

b. 6th July 1905 in Paddington, London, the eldest of four daughters; grew up in Dover, Kent, but her father was a rather peripatetic amateur entomologist and she was educated all over Europe.

Was very busy in 1931; described as a 'secretary' [actually, she was the Company Secretary of her mother's family firm of upmarket china and glassware merchants, Thos Goode & Sons], and living in Maida Vale, London, acquired both her aviator's 'A' Certificate (No 9752), and her husband, Mr Arthur L 'Pat' Patterson. At the same time, she also competed in the Ladies event at Reading (May, 1931) - the other competitors were Amy Johnson, Grace Aitken, Pauline Gower, Dorothy Spicer, Susan Slade, Winifred Spooner, Christina Young, and Fidelia Crossley - a historic gathering indeed.

Her son, Ian, was born in 1932 in Eton, Oxfordshire, but Gabrielle and Pat divorced in 1939.

In 1938, she wrote an article on the subject 'Would women make good instructors in the event of war'. She, of course, was already a successful instructor, although admittedly her experience was limited, because "a man who is paying for his flying, and whose average age is probably a little greater on that account, is more amenable to reason than the youngster of eighteen to twenty, with his wild oats still unsown."

She thought that women instructors would probably cope, though; "The instructor always starts with the advantage of his pupil's spontaneous respect for a (relative) master of his subject, coupled with a very natural wish to shine. The woman instructor has the added advantage that this respect is enhanced by her supposed greater difficulties in acquiring that (relative) mastery and with the instinctive desire of the male to impress the female. By tactfully and subtly indicating the conduct in the air and on the ground which does win her confidence and does impress her, she can obtain it in nine cases out of ten, and in the face of such a proportion she could certainly count on disciplinary measures for the tenth."

But she worried whether there would actually be enough women to become instructors; her experience was that women didn't make such good puplis as men. "It is arguable that since of good men pilots only a few make good instructors, amongst women (where the number of good pilots is a lower percentage of pupils) the quantity of good instructors would be so small that there could be no justification for spending public funds in discovering them."

The reason for this, she thought, was that "women pilots hitherto have consisted only of those with large enough bank balances".

Flight reported her activities at the time: 

19 May 1938: "ROMFORD. Miss Amy Johnson visited the Romford Flying Club last Sunday to present a flag and charter to the National Women's Air Reserve which operates there. There are 125 members of the Reserve, taking flying instruction with Mrs. G. M. Patterson."

15 June, 1939: "Mrs. G. Patterson's G.A.P.A.N. Appointment. All who have come into contact with her will wish to congratulate Mrs. Gabrielle Patterson on her appointment to the Panel of the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators. This is the first time that a woman has received the appointment.

Mrs. Patterson has been a flying instructor for some years and is now leader of the National Women's Air Reserve, the organisation which has been putting in a good deal of flying —and securing no little amount of newspaper publicity—at Maylands Aerodrome, Romford. Mrs. Patterson herself, it may be added, has always shunned any sort of personal publicity.

She is, we believe, a first-rate pilot and an extremely capable instructor."

She was living in Bristol, aged 34, with about 1,530 hours experience when WWII broke out in September 1939; her son was at Prep. School.

Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII - see  Patterson, Gabrielle Ruth Millicent (W.14) (ata-ferry-pilots.org)

She died relatively young, sadly; having completed a degree at Manchester University in the 50s, she moved to France but fell ill with cancer, moved back to Little Missenden, Bucks, to live with her sister, but died there on 31st October 1968, aged 63.

  1916, when a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, aged 29

Test pilot for the Air Ministry; AFC 1923

b. 28 Oct 1899 in Yorkshire, a "Director of Limited Companies"

Air Commodore  (later Sir) Harald Peake, post-WWII Director of RAF public relations and later chairman of Lloyds Bank and the Steel Company of Wales.

Harald only got his aviator's certificate on the 28th April 1930 (after returning from this tour), so that, perhaps, explains why he took along RLR Atcherley, probably one of the most famous and experienced aviators of the time, to help him fly his new plane!

His wife, Felicity, was the founding director of the Women's Royal Air Force.

d. 1978

 Miss Leonore Mary de Chancal Pellier

Royal Aero Club Certificate 8590 (17 May 1929)

b Abbotskerswell, 25 Jun 1905

a 'spinster of independent means'

  1930, aged 32

Australian aeronautical genius who ended up in the USA and New Zealand, via Luton.

b. 23 Feb 1897 in Albury, N.S.W. In 1915, while training in England, he became only the third person on record to recover from a spin (supposedly, Fred Raynham [q.v.] was the first). He later wrote: "After that I found that spinning was great fun and spun a Bristol Scout the next day. Very much later, on the Western Front, I found a spin was a very speedy way of dropping on the enemy - especially through a handy cloud."

Designer, and pilot, of some of the finest racing and record-breaking aeroplanes of all time.

"He always flies his rakish Mew Gulls in a soft felt hat and tries to look as much unlike an intrepid birdman as possible, though he has never yet deceived the handicappers by this ruse." 

  King's Cup 1934; sans trilby, for once

Flight said he "has an uncanny navigational sense in thick weather, but sometimes flies pensively past his destination in 100-mile visibility".

Michael Madigan wrote: "It was very difficult to resist his puckish humour and not to fall under his spell... In his early flying days he had a fox-terrier called Ginger Mick. This dog always sat in the [open] rear cockpit tethered to a spar. One day as Edgar was preparing to land he went into a loop to lose height, forgetting about his passenger. After levelling off he heard strange scrabbling noises from the back and looking out saw Ginger Mick frantically dog-paddling in the air suspended by his lead. Edgar managed to manoevre Ginger back into the plane, and after landing he thought he would never see Ginger Mick again as he rushed off, but Ginger was as persistent an aviator as his master and reappeared, to settle in his place at start-up, large as life, and eager for more."

 In 1956, with the EP.9 'Prospector'. And trilby.

© The Royal Aero Club

d. 21 Jan 1984; his ashes were taken by the RAAF "to be scattered in the very field in Richmond, N.S.,W., where it all began."

"Edgar Percival had a strong character, a high mental and moral sense, and was a perfectionist - the qualities which made him successful. He was the dominant presence which compelled attention in a group. This dominance arose from his vast knowledge of aviation in all its aspects... all this and his strength of will did not make him an easy associate. He could see problems clearly, had the energy to solve them, and drove himself relentlessly, which made him rather intolerant of those less gifted."

(All quotes via Martin Barraclough, for which many thanks)

b 3 Jun 1903 in Boldre, Hampshire, an Engineer

Sir Robert Perkins; went to Eton and then Trinity College, Cambridge.

Director of Messrs Roy Dempster, Manchester. He had "a wide circle of personal friends (which included Lyndsey Everard MP), and... [was] a keen politician". He was, in fact, in charge of the erection of a large gasholder near Heston Airport in 1933.

Became a Conservative MP (for Stroud 1931-1945) and was instrumental in the setting up of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) in the late 30s.

Parlimentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation during WWII; in October 1944, he married Nigel Norman's widow Patricia, in Westminster Cathedral.

MP for Stroud again from 1950-55. Knighted in 1954.

In 1954, following the accidents to the DH Comet airliner, he handed in a motion to the House of Commons stating "That this House will regret the proposal of BOAC to buy American airliners". He urged them to buy Britannias instead...

Subsequently Charirman of Southern Newspapers, and a director of Southern Television.

d. Dec 1988 in Salisbury, Wilts.

  1915, when a Sergeant in the RFC, aged 23

  1922, aged 30

   1922

b. Birmingham 3 Jul 1892

RFC in WWI; cross-channel pilot for Handley Page Transport 1920-22; test pilot for ADC Transport 1922-27. Joined Imperial Airways in 1927

Feb 1928: "A FLYING RECORD. Captain H. Perry, an Imperial Airways pilot, piloted a seven-ton Handley-Page Napier air liner, with a full load of passengers and freight, from London to Brussels on Saturday in 85 minutes flying time, a record for this type of machine."

Address in 1932: 'Sinaia', Cosdach Ave, Wallington, Surrey

A member of the Court of the Guild of Airline Pilots and Navigators in the 30s; awarded Master Pilot's Certificate in 1935