Aviator

Western Morning News - Thursday 31 January 1935:

ST. AUSTELL PILOT HURT 'Plane Crash In Hospital Grounds CRITICAL STATE THIS MORNING

PERCIVAL PHILLIPS, M.C, St. Austell, was seriously injured when a two-seater aeroplane which was piloting, making forced landing in the dark, crashed into the grounds of Springfield Mental Hospital. Lower Tooting, London, S.W., last night.

He was first taken to the Springfield Hospital, but was later transferred St. James Hospital, Balham, where it was stated early this morning that he was in a critical condition, with a fractured skull, a broken nose, broken leg, and other injuries.

His passenger, Mr. James Edward Fry, of Gloucester-terrace, who received injuries to tbe left eye and nose, and was also transferred to the Balham Hospital, was later able take his discharge. The machine, which was owned by Air Services, of Croydon, and was making a flight round London when the mishap occurred, was slightly damaged.

WAR SERVICE R.A.F. Capt. Percival Phillips, whose London address was given as the Aerodrome Hotel, Croydon, lives in St. Austell. During the war he served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Coming down the Turkish lines in Mesopotamia, he was taken prisoner.

He is partner in the motor firm Messrs. Hill and Phillips, of St. Austell, and is senior partner in the firm of Cornwall Aviation Company, whose headquarters are at St. Austell. He has been one of tbe pilots in Sir Alan Cobham's Flying circus, and his acrobatic stunts in the air will be  remembered by many from the West country who visited the circus. His wife last night informed Western Morning News representative that she had intimation of the accident from London. Mrs. Phillips is the elder daughter of Mr. H. Rowse, of the firm of St. Auslell auctioneers. There are two young children."

d. 1938:

"‘DEATH OF CAPT. P. PHILLIPS
FLIGHT greatly regrets to record the death of Capt. Percival Phillips, D.F.C., R.A.F.O., managing director and chief pilot of Air Publicity, Ltd. It appears that Capt. Phillips, on his way home to Heston from banner-towing work at Hull, put his 504 Avro down in a field at Gamlingay, between Bedford and Cambridge, in order to call upon friends for lunch. In taking-off afterwards in gusty weather the machine struck a tree top, hit the ground, and caught fire.
Capt. Phillips, who had been with Air Publicity since their inception in 1935, was formerly managing director of C. W. A. Scott’s Flying Display, and had safely carried many thousand passengers as a joy-ride pilot. During the war he had seen flying service in Iraq and elsewhere.
Last summer, flying a veteran Lynx Avro used daily for banner towing, he won the Devon Air Race. Those of us who met him on that occasion and elsewhere recall him as a particularly charming and modest man, with an almost boyish zest for flying which belied his 45 years. To his equally sporting and enthusiastic wife – who was his passenger in the Avro during the Devon Race, and on many other flights – and to his two children, FLIGHT extends most sincere sympathy in their loss.’"

  1928, aged 32

a 'Dealer' from London; WWI ace (5 victories, one shared with James Robb).

Attempted an England-Australia flight in 1930 with F/O. C. J. Chabot on a D.H. "Puss Moth"; left Croydon October 6, but abandoned the flight in Karachi on October 13.

died 1938

photo: 1922

 © The Royal Aero Club

Later (1924) to fly the Beardmore 'Wee Bee' in the Lympne light aircraft trials; although he suffered engine failure only 2 miles from the finish, he won the £2,000 prize for a speed run.

photo: 1918, aged 20

photo: 1937, aged 39

Originally from New Zealand, a farmer.

He and Cyril Kay flew a Desoutter from England to Australia in 1930; later chief test pilot for Shorts, until 1948.

"Apart from flying, Pip's other passions in life are duck shooting, guns and boats."

  (r), with Lankester Parker. © The Royal Aero Club

d. 1965

 b. 6 September 1901

d. 13 August 1985, aged 83

Chief Instructor with Air Service Training

  1921, aged 22

Dick Terry kindly tells me that George Beacall Powell was one of the original 16 pilots for Imperial Airways, and that he was b. 20th April 1899 in Loppington. Sadly, the rest of his story is quite a short one:

"In July 1916 George Powell was a science undergraduate at Keble College Oxford, but he left the University the following year and on 11 June joined the RFC as a Cadet.

On 29 July 1917 he was promoted to 2nd Lt on probation on the General List. In October, after further training he was appointed Flying Officer. In November he attended the Armament Experimental Station Orfordness for bombing & weapons training.

In February 1918 Powell contracted jaundice and it was more than six months before he was allowed to resume flying – but only under close medical supervision. He was eventually declared fit for Home Service flying duties on 15 November 1918.

In January the following year Powell was awarded the Air Force Cross

In February 1919 he was assigned to No 1 Communications Squadron where he remained until September when he was transferred to the unemployed list. He joined Instone Air Line soon after.

In 1923 Powell had to withdraw from the Kings Cup Air Race when his DH 34 could not be spared from its official duties on the London Continental air service.

Powell moved to Imperial Airways when it was formed by the amalgamation of Instone Air Line with three other companies in April 1924.

He died a year later on 19th April in a motoring accident at Mitcham Common. The coroner decided that Powell had been driving negligently and blamed him entirely for the accident – the other driver was cleared of all blame. Shockingly these details were recorded on his death certificate.

His body was taken back to Croydon and then flown, in a D.H. 34, to Shrewsbury Aerodrome. The Times dated 27 April 1925 recorded the event as the first time in the history of aviation that an aeroplane had been used as a hearse. The funeral and interment took place in Stanton, Captain Powell’s home town."

b. Cardiff 11 Aug 1907

Imperial Airways from 1930

based Heliopolis, employed on European routes.

Imperial Airways from 1931: pilot on North African Division

b. Durban, S Africa 4 Jan 1900

based Khartoum

  1916, when a 2nd Lieut in the 2/5th Royal Warwickshire Regiment, aged 25

from Lancashire, later an Air Commodore; retired to Kenya.

Felt that aviation wasn't as much fun after the invention of the parachute.

In 1927-8 he entered as 'Harold Brooklyn', and 1929-31 he entered as 'J Wellworth'; I have no idea why.

  b. 8 June 1889 in Alexandria, Minnesota, USA

Flight said in 1917 :"I always thought that Walter L. Brock, the unceasing masticator and the winner of many notable aerial races, was the most modest American England had ever seen, until C. B. Prodger came over."

After seven years as a rancher in the Little Missouri Valley, he worked for the Northern Pacific Railway, then went into the motor business and became well known as an amateur racer. He won many prizes, including the Montana Speed Trophy in 1910.

Learnt to fly in 1911 with Beatty in the USA, then did a good deal of special work for the Pathe Film Co. and also went in for night flying. In the spring of 1913 he went to Montana to give exhibitions on his own machine—a monoplane with an 8-cylinder V-type Boland motor.

After this it seemed, he said, that there was "nothing doing" in aviation in the USA, and he gave up flying for a time. Then in February, 1915, he came over to Hendon and rejoined Beatty to assist him in training pilots for the R.N.A.S.

 When the school closed down, he took over from Sydney Pickles as an official test pilot, assessing every kind of aeroplane, "his calm, analytical mind being admirably adapted for work of this nature."

Killed 22 Aug 1920 in Redwood City, California, with two other aviators, in a crash from a height of 300 feet.

see also http://earlyaviators.com/eprodger.htm

Later an Air Vice Marshall

  1933, when 2nd Lieut in the Grenadier Guards, aged 20.

  in 1936

b 25 Jan 1912 in Chelsea, London.

His parents (American-born Arthur Bertram Randolph and Enid Saffron Pickersgill-Cunliffe) had made the society pages when they had a 'best girl' as well as a best man at their wedding in 1908.

However, his father was killed in WWI, his mother remarried (becoming Saffron Duberly, and 'lady of the manor' in St Neots) and in 1924 she and Mr Duberly sailed off to Jamaica, leaving the 12-year-old Patrick to go with his aunt Adelaide to the USA, presumably to visit family (his grandfather Arthur Randolph Randolph had emigrated and died there in 1885).

It seems that Patrick subsequently lived with his aunt Adelaide and her husband Lionel in Dorset - he always quoted their address as his own, and again visited the USA with her in 1935.

In December of 1933, he and fellow-officer Capt Goschen flew (in Pat's Percival Gull) to Egypt to take up an appointment at the Flying School for 2 years. Whilst there, he took part in the 'Oases Circuit Air Race' along with 31 others from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Jugoslavia, Sweden and Belgium.

He "sportingly flew up for the race round the Isle of Man in 1936 during 48 hours leave and flew back the same night".

He took part in several other races, e.g. the Folkestone Air Trophy in August 1933; the London-Cardiff Race in 1936, and the Manx Air Race in June 1937. He entered for the Schlesinger Race in 1936 (as co-pilot to Lt Misri Chand) but the aeroplane wasn't ready in time.

He owned 4 aeroplanes:

- G-AACV, a 1928 Avro Avian IVM;

- G-ACJW, a 1933 Percival Gull which was sold in Australia in 1934 and became VH-UTC;

- G-ACUL, a 1934 Gull Six (sold in New Zealand, becoming ZK-AES), and finally

- G-AEKD, a 1936 Vega Gull.

It was this aircraft in which he was killed in a crash in Jaipur, India on 12 October 1937, aged 25. P Q Reiss (q.v) was also seriously injured in the same accident.

A few weeks before his death, he and his uncle-in-law Lionel had been the joint executors for the will of his father's half-brother, Judge Joseph Randolph J.P., selling Eastcourt Estate ('A Georgian house with 484 acres, garages, stabling, and 9 cottages').

(His mother Saffron's son by her second marriage was also killed, in WWII. Her second husband died in 1951; she herself died in 1980).

b. 7 Sep 1896, Calcutta, India

British Army 1914-16; RAF 1916-21 & 1923-28; RAFO 1928-36

Test pilot (subs Chief Pilot), Cierva Auto-Giro Co, 1928-32

Involved in early helicopter experiments, including a helicopter promotional tour of the UK in Aug 1928, and of Europe (Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Dortmund, Hanover, Berlin & Rotterdam, incl dual with German Ace Ernst Udet), in Oct 1928

co-author,' The Book of the C.19 Autogiro' (1931)

staff pilot for Cobham's Flying Circus in 1932

RAF 1940-41

Died in WWII - 3 Jun 1941, crashed ½m North of Towyn Aerodrome attempting a forced landing after engine failure in Henley III L3284. He and AC2 Sharp were trapped in the aircraft, which burnt out.

 Research: thanks to Steve Brew

  1920, aged 27

© The Royal Aero Club [0011-0050]

© The Royal Aero Club [0357-0137]

© The Royal Aero Club [0738-0152]

© The Royal Aero Club [0906-0042]

© The Royal Aero Club [0908-0175]

'Fred', originally from Suffolk; the first man to recover from a spin, (although he didn't know how he had done it); test pilot for Hawkers; died 1954 in the USA and is buried in Colorado Springs. Survived a lot of crashes.

   1934

b. 23 September 1901 in London, the daughter of Sir John and Lady Rees. He was MP for East Nottingham.

Owned a 1935 M.2H Hawk Major 145, G-ADBT.

She volunteered to fly Christmas presents to Prague in December 1938, for refugees.

From her obituary: "ROSEMARY, Lady Du Cros, who has died aged 92, was a pre-war dancer turned aviatrix and became one of the first of the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) women ferry pilots. She continued her flying career long after the war.

Born Rosemary Rees, daughter of Sir John Rees, she went to ballet school in Chelsea, and joined a dancing troupe performing in revue. Returning to the UK in the early thirties from touring in Ceylon, China and America, her attention was diverted to flying after a friend had persuaded her to take a lesson and she enthusiastically embraced what was to be the enduring passion of her life.

Going solo in 1933 after seven hours' instruction, and complete with a private pilot's licence, she bought her own aeroplane and toured air-rallies, with excursions to practically every European country, enjoying the life of the halcyon years of pre-war private flying.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 she had acquired an instructor's licence, flown more than 90 aircraft types and had 600 hours in her logbook."

More here: https://www.ata-ferry-pilots.org/index.php/category-blog-1940/85-rees-rosemary-miss

Mr. Rees alleged misconduct by his wife, Kathleen Rees, and the suit was undefended.

The marriage took place in 1935 at Devonport. Early in 1938, according to the petitioner's case, Mrs. Rees said that she was love with another man, and they separated. Mr. Rees later found that his wife had stayed with a man at a London Hotel in June, 1938. Costs were given against the co-respondent, Leslie Whittome."

  b. 22 Jun 1883 in Canterbury Kent

A GP (as was his father). "He had a fine athletic figure, and was a good all-round athlete".

In WWI he served as surgeon in the Duchess of Westminster Hospital in France, and later in Egypt. Taught to fly by pilot friends, he bought his first plane (G-EAFH, an Avro 504) in 1922, then the same year acquired the first privately-owned SE5a (G-EAZT) before swapping it for another (G-EBCA) which he then raced in the 1923 Aerial Derby. This latter aircraft was somewhat underpowered at the time and apparently could only just reach 65mph. (He finished last, even on handicap).

He bought his first SE5a for £30 from an enterprising mechanic who had been given 5 war-surplus ones to smash, but instead carefully took them apart, piled them up to look "like firewood", bought the lot for a fiver at auction and then carefully re-assembled them.

He housed his aircraft in his own hangar on his own aerodrome, flew to "just about every air meeting of importance", and often took part in races.

He was a friend of the novelist Joseph Conrad, and in 1927 recalled him saying after his first flight that flying was easy "compared to rounding Cape Horn in a sailing vessel in a storm". But then, apparently Conrad said that about everything, except writing a novel.

Later, a Flight Lieutenant with 601 (County of London) Bomber Squadron and President of the Kent Gliding Club.

d. 20 Oct 1930, aged 47, near Maidstone, Kent after he crashed during an attempted forced landing in his Westland Widgeon II G-EBJT 'Wendy'. He and his passenger, 21-year old Irene Burnside, were returning from a gliding exhibition and had run into bad weather. She was killed outright, he died a day later from his injuries.