Aviator

  1930, aged 23

In 1931, an Assistant Advertising Manager from Milton Ernest, Bedfordshire

Later, Director-General of the British Cement and Concrete Association (1958)

d. 1988

photo: 1915, aged 22, when a Flt Sub-Lt in the RNAS

b. 23 Jan 1893 in Ruabon, N Wales

RNAS in WWI (June 1916).

Joined the Aircraft Manufacturing Company after WWI, and  was the first pilot then licensed by the Air Ministry.

He conducted the very first flight after the ban on civilian flying was raised on May 1, 1919, taking off from Hounslow before dawn in a D.H.9, with a parcel of Daily Mails, heading for Bournemouth. Unfortunately, "fog was encountered in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth, and a forced landing on the Portsdown Hills resulted in the machine being wrecked and the pilot, Capt. H. J. Saint, D.S.C., and passenger, Capt. D. Greig, being injured."

Rejoined the RAF in March 1922, and (as F/O Saint) competed in a handicap race at the RAF Pageant later that year.

In 1927, he became chief test pilot for Gloster. He had a narrow escape in 1933; "The Breda monoplane on which has been fitted the Ugo Antoni variable-camber wing crashed on Chosen Hill, Churchdown, near Gloucester, on Friday last. Mr. H. J. Saint, Gloster's chief test pilot, had taken the machine up in very bumpy weather, and a couple of minutes afterwards wing flutter developed, a portion of the port aileron came adrift and the machine sideslipped into some trees, Mr. Saint escaping with minor injuries." 

Married twice, September 1918 (divorced August 1934) and in 1936.

Retired to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and died there in Sept 1976.

   1935

b. 20 September 1910 (or possibly October 1907)

Peggy's brief moment in the spotlight came in November 1931. She and Gordon Store flew her D.H. Puss Moth 'The Good Hope', and two lion cubs, to Cape Town, in 5 and a half days, breaking Glen Kidston's record by 28 hours.

They gave her a celebration dinner at the Dorchester, at which she modestly pointed out that Gordon did "all the navigation, the chief part of the piloting, the forced landing [they missed an aerodrome and had to spend the night in 'dangerous country'] and for landing and taking off at the majority of the aerodromes", as well as looking after the engine. She did all the organisation and relieved Mr Store "when the flying was easy". Nevertheless, neither of them had more than about 20 hours sleep during the entire flight.

The lion cubs? She picked those up in Juba, [Southern Sudan, as you probably know] took them to Cape Town and then on to England. They appeared in the Christmas circus at Olympia and then went on the road with Bertram Mills's Circus. In October 1932 they were reported as being "sturdy young lions" who were "a picture of health". So that turned out well, then.

See a newsreel of her, and the lion cubs of course, here.

Their Cape Town record only stood for a few months, though; Jim Mollison managed it at the second attempt, in under 5 days, the following March.

She was, however, still (just) famous enough in May 1932 to get to meet Amelia Earhart at the American Embassy - more detailshere:  Pioneering Women.

  1930, aged 18

b. 16 May 1912, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex

Father: William Sanders, a corn merchant

After competing in the 1933 King's Cup air race in his Southern Martlet G-ABIF, he was confirmed as a Pilot Officer in the RAF in September 1933.

Address in 1935: 'Casilla', The Cliff, Roedean, Sussex

"F/O. William Daniel Dennehy and F/O. Theodore Cecil Sanders, the pilot and passenger of an aircraft of No. 2 Armoured Car Company, Ramleh, Palestine, lost their lives in an accident which occurred at Sarafand on September 26, 1935".. "Dennehy was a New Zealander, Sanders lived in Sussex, and had been at Ramleh since the beginning of February last."

"Flying Officer Sanders was the son of Mr. William Sanders, of Roedean. Sussex, who is a cousin of Mr. Isaac Pike, Bradley Road, Trowbridge, and of Mrs. S. Whatley, of Rock Road. The young airman had visited his relatives at Trowbridge on several occasions, and was very popular with everybody he knew. The family will have the sympathy all in their tragic loss." - Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser - Saturday 28 September 1935

"He is commemorated on a family grave in Woodvale Cemetery, Brighton, and the inscription reads:

IN EVER LOVING MEMORY OF FLYING OFFICER THEODORE CECIL SANDERS, RAF

KILLED  AT SARAFAND, PALESTINE 26TH SEPTEMBER 1935,  AGED 22 YEARS"

- with thanks to Richard Maddox, of the War Memorials Register Project Team.

 The first British pilot to fly a jet fighter, in 1941; killed in 1942 in a flying accident in Northumberland.

Gerry Sayer - Wikipedia

photo: 1934, aged 35

Director and General Manager of General Aircraft Limited, who built the  Monospar aircraft. Spent four years after WWI building church organs.

He was a Schneider pilot in 1927 but crashed before the race, because they'd put the aircraft back together wrongly - he was thrown clear in the crash, but his clothes were dragged off, leaving him clad only in a shirt; wrote a couple of books; died 1955.

To see some video footage (and to hear him say “Well, I am very proud to have won this cup…but, um, I think the man who should be speaking is Mr. Steiger who built the machine… I couldn’t have done it without the machine, and I think a lot of people could have won it in the machine, and that’s all there is to be said about it, really”),

click here:  King's Cup Air Race - British Pathé (britishpathe.com)

  1926

known as 'Tiny'; b. 1893 in Calgary, Alberta. RAeC certificate Fr 819 (1912).

Joned the RFC as a mechanic in WWI; German PoW 1915-18. chief test pilot for Vickers.

  Penrose

d. 1929 in the original Vickers Vanguard, which crashed at Shepperton

"His was a lovable disposition, and he could be at once amusing, illuminative, and instructive." C G Grey

  1929, when an Army officer (11th Hussars), aged 25

'From Suffolk. Enjoys polo, hunting, shooting and other sports'.

Later a Brigadier:

Brigadier Derek Schreiber, Chief of Staff to the Governor General and Viscountess Clive, Lady in Waiting to the Duchess of Gloucester leaving St. John's Church after their wedding, Canberra, 24 October 1945 - Trove

 d. 1972 and is buried in Marlesford, Suffolk.

photo: 1934, aged 31

  with his father Charles

Born 13^thFebruary 1903 in London

One of the truly great aviators of the 1930s, establishing many long-distance records and winning some of the most important long-distance races of the period, but rather went to seed after that and shot himself after WWII. Scott wrote a book, and enterprisingly called it 'Scott's Book'.

"Scott is a splendidly-built six-footer, always in excellent condition. His other sporting recreations are golf and sailing."

"Charles Wiliam Anderson Scott, aviation editor of the 'News Chronicle', is the elder son of Mr Charles Kennedy Scott, the musician and conductor.

Educated at Westminster School, the future airman began his career as a sugar planter in Demerara, South America. The experience did not prove at all to his liking and he returned to England in 1922. Sailing was his passionate hobby - it still is - but as a youth trying to find his rightful career, flying did not occur to him until a friend suggested joining the Royal Air Force. Young Charles Scott sent in his application and thought little more about it until he found himself accepted and ordered to report to the Flying School at Duxford.

The Royal Air Force occupied the next four years of his life [he was heavyweight and light-heavyweight boxing champion whilst in the RAF] and in 1926 he was again wondering what was the next move when chance played the deciding game again. A sharp shower of rain sent him scurrying into Australia House for shelter with the result that he was bound for Australia not many weeks later.

There Scott became a pilot with Qantas Ltd., flying the mail routes in Western Queensland and acting as a flying instructor from 1927 to 1930. During that period he met the late Bert Hinkler, Mrs Mollison and the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and was inspired to break records.

Scott resigned his flying job in Queensland and came to England in 1931 determined to break the England-Australia record, despite accumulating financial troubles caused by the rising Australian rate of exchange.

He got there, reducing the record to 9 days 3 hours. That year he flew back again and made another record of 10 days 23 hours. Both flights beat Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's times.

In 1932 he attacked the England-Australia record for the second time and regained it with 8 days 20 hours.

The greatest adventure of his career was the magnificent flight in the Mildenhall-Melbourne air race of 1934 when he and the late Tom Campbell Black reached Melbourne in just under 3 days.

On September 17, Scott was married to Miss Greta Bremner, younger daughter of Mr and Mrs E L Bremner, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, only 12 days before the start of the Johannesburg air race."

- from the Celebration Dinner programme after the race (October 14th 1936 at Claridge's Hotel).

In 1936, his "Flying for All" Display embraced over 150 centres in the United Kingdom and Irish Free State, and was aimed particularly at "familiarising people with some of the cheap, easy-to-fly light aeroplanes available to-day".

Died 15^th April 1946, in Germany, aged 43

p.s. The £10,000 MacRobertson first prize would, using average earnings, be worth about £2 million today.

 Elileen May Scott

Royal Aero Club Certificate: 8554 (16 Apr 1929)

  1929

b. 21 May 1903, from Barnsley, who owned:

• a 1928 Avro 594 Avian III, G-EBYO, which she later sold to Vera Brailey, then a

• 1929 Blackburn L.1C Bluebird IV, previously G-AAOC, registered EC-UUU in Madrid in December 1933

  1930, aged 24

b. 12 Sep 1906 in Eton, Bucks.

B.A. Cantab. and an 'Old Uppinghamian'. In 1930, a solicitor from Stoke Poges, if you hadn't already guessed :-), and, for a while, v. famous in the Skegness area...

In 1930, after competing in the King's Cup, he crashed near Skegness when the wheels of his D.H.60X Moth G-EBXG caught a wire fence. He jumped clear, but his mechanic (Howard), who was still strapped in, was 'injured about the head'.

May 1932, he had a terrifying ordeal (a bit like General and Mrs Lewin in the Sudan swamps, but even worse) in the remote reaches of The Wash; "CRIPPLED 'PLANE ON SANDBANK SET ON FIRE TO ATTRACT ATTENTION  - HULL TRADER TO RESCUE"

"Captain (sic) M. D. L. Scott, secretary of the Skegness Aero Club, was flying with a passenger named Tingall, from Skegness to Hunstanton, when his 'plane developed engine trouble. They were about halfway across the Wash, and he was compelled to a make forced landing on a sandbank which was uncovered, as it was low tide... they made an effort to swim the five miles to shore, but the current proved too strong. They then tried to attract attention by setting fire to the 'plane. Later the flames were noticed by a small cargo boat named Lizzie and Annie, which came alongside and took Captain Scott and his passenger on board. "

Only just in time, too - the tide was rising fast... only the engine of the aeroplane remained unburnt... Gosh!

By 1933, he was offering to take sun-starved midlanders to be braced up a bit in Skegness; 25 bob return from Nottingham or Leicester, 35 shillings from Birmingham: "Nottingham people will be able to fly to Skegness again this summer at fares which will actually be cheaper than the first-class railway rates. This enterprising venture, which was inaugurated last year, is to be resumed again at Easter on a very much bigger scale... The service is to be conducted Mr. M. D. L. Scott, of Eastern Air Services, Skegness".

The Eastern Air Transport Company carried 30,000 passengers in the 4 years to 1933 without serious incident.

In November 1934, the Western Daily Press reported thus: "FOUND: AN AEROPLANE. A police constable, while on duty in Pinner, Middlesex, yesterday, found a monoplane in a field. No one seemed to know how the monoplane got there, and the constable began to make inquiries. The machine appeared to be a privately owned one, and was in good condition save for some slight damage to the undercarriage. The monoplane bore the marks G-AAPY and inscribed inside the fuselage was the name "M. D. L. Scott, Skegness." Further inquiries by the officer among the farm hands and the owner of the farm, Mr Hall, showed that someone saw an aeroplane land in a field on Wednesday afternoon. From that time until the constable discovered it yesterday it has been completely unattended, and, far as the police know, unclaimed. A Mr L. Scott, an airman, operates a private aerodrome and club at Winthorpe, a mile or so from Skegness. Pinner police were last night in communication with the police at Skegness."

[G-AAPY was a Desoutter I, belonging to Michael. It was, indeed, written off in November 1934.)

He then turned to golf in the late 30s - winner of the 'Witt Cup' in 1938.

Married firstly to Marguerite; their son, Roderick, was born in December 1943. By then, he was a Flt-Lt (RAF Volunteer Reserve) in Oxford.

However, by 1948, when he married Miss Patricia Collette Thomas (from Bude, Cornwall) in Zurich, they lived at 400 East 57th St, New York.

Describing himself as a 'Sales Manager', he travelled (first class) from Durban to Southampton in February 1959, intending to stay a couple of months with the Duke of Somerset, Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire. Like you do.

b. 2 Apr 1900 in Chicago, known generally as 'Gordon'.

Son of Harry Gordon Selfridge Snr, the founder of Selfridge's department store in London; his mother, Amelia 'Rose' Buckingham, died of pneumonia in 1918. Gordon had 2 older sisters - Rosalie and Violette, and a younger sister Beatrice. Harry always regarded Gordon as his natural successor.

The children had a privileged upbringing during the years that Selfridge's was doing well - travelling frequently back to Chicago, or to St Moritz for skiing; cycling around London, playing tennis or learning judo. Gordon was a pupil at Winchester, then got a degree in economics at Trinity College Cambridge.

His father was apparently unimpressed with Gordon's liaison with a pretty girl called Charlotte Elsie Dennis, from the Toy Department in his store; Charlotte and Gordon eventually had four children (three of whom got PhD's), but Harry Sr simply refused to acknowledge the relationship.

Anyway, at 26, Gordon became MD of Provincial Stores Group (part of the Selfridge's Empire) and bought a new DH Moth to get around. This he crashed into a tree, whereupon his father insisted that he sell it (to Oscar Garden as it happens, who used it to fly solo to Australia). And he bought a speedboat. And then another plane. "He was constantly photographed beside a combination of a plane, a boat, or a beautiful woman"; he comes across as, let's be frank, a rich, spoilt, playboy.

Gordon continunued to be well-known in all the best aviating (and lunching) circles throughout the 1930s - e.g. in June 1932, "Miss Amelia Earhart was entertained to luncheon at Heston by Mr. Gordon Selfridge, Jnr. Among Mr. Selfridge's party at lunch were Sqd. Ldr. and Mrs. Orlebar, the Hon. Leo Russell, Mr. and Mrs. Nigel Norman and Mr. and Mrs. R. Denman. After lunch Mr. Selfridge flew Miss Earhart to Brooklands' display in a 'Puss  Moth', several private owners accompanying them in their machines as escort. Later in the day Miss Earhart returned to Heston, again being piloted by Mr. Selfridge."

  © The Royal Aero Club [0378-0025]

A typical jaunt - the Easter Flying Tour, in 1931: Harry (3rd from right) with others including Flt Lt MacIntosh, H Jackaman, R Denman, JC Parkes, Leslie Runciman, Whitney Straight, and HH Leech.

With Rosalind Norman at Heston in 1933 - The Bystander

However, after his father lost control of the Selfridge's Empire in 1939 and it became clear that there was no place for him in the new setup, Gordon returned to the U.S., finally married Charlotte (yes, her from the Toy Department) in Illinois and thereafter continued to work as a "retail executive" for Sears Roebuck.

d. 30 November 1976 at Red Bank, New Jersey, aged 76.

  1930

 b. 5 May 1900 in Dorking, owned a 1928 DH.60M Moth, G-AACD.

She used this in February 1932 when she flew, "unaccompanied, on a 3,500-mile flight to Transjordania. The flight is a pleasure one entirely, mainly to visit friends at Amman. She reached Le Bourget in the afternoon, but was held up there by bad weather until February 25, when she proceeded to Marseilles. Rome was reached on February 27, and after a stop of 20 min. she flew on to Naples. Here she was again held up by bad weather."  

(Irene, love, are you absolutely sure it was a good idea to go in February?)

She was then "weatherbound at Naples for nearly a fortnight. She was able to resume her flight last week-end when she accomplished a splendid trip to Campania in 3 hr. 50 min. in such bad weather conditions that a German pilot, who left Naples shortly after for the same destination, had to return to Naples."

Anyway, she finally got there on March 19th. I hope it was worth it.

In August 1932, the "GOSSIP FROM GATWICK" was that "The feminine element was well to the fore during the last week. Miss Aitken [i.e. Grace Aitken, q.v.] did her first taxi trip, when she conveyed Miss Sewell to Heston to collect her machine, in which she put up such a very good show when she flew it out solo to Transjordania."

The aeroplane ended up at Cambridge Aero Club, and they duly wrote it off in a crash on the 24th June 1937.

Irene died in 1970.

The son of His Honour Sir Charles Lister Shand and Lady Shand; he married Ruperta Sibyl Bromley, daughter of Sir Robert Bromley, 6th Bt. and later the Hon. Lilian Pauncefote, on 3 June 1924, but they divorced in 1933. He later married Enid Chauvin.

Joined the RAFVR in WWII, was promoted to Acting Flt-Lt in February 1941 but was killed 16 June 1941 on active service in the Middle East, and is commemorated in Cairo's War Memorial.

His mother was killed in an air raid on Bath in April 1942.

 1934, before the MacRobertson Race

 1947

 [with family insights kindly provided by Louise Wilkinson, author of 'The Kipper Patrol', who interviewed Geoffrey's wife in October 2009]

Geoffrey was born in Saltburn by the Sea, Yorkshire, in 1902, the second of 5 boys whose mother died at the age of 32 when he was 7. His father, who owned the Wellington Cast Steel Foundry  in nearby Middlesborough, was unable to cope with the five boys, so Geoffrey was sent to public school in Scotland.

He then studied engineering at Cambridge; whilst there, he met a friend who wanted to learn to fly, so the two of them went and found someone who could teach them both. After Cambridge, he went back to work in the family business, Wm Shaw & Co Ltd.

"He was a very good engineer. He never reckoned he was very smart at anything learning wise, I don’t think any one else did either, but he was very good at all kinds of sport. 

"He found a small aerodrome where he could continue flying to build up his hours."

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE AERO CLUB REPORT

 for week ending June 5, 1927. —-Total flying time : 33 hrs. 10 mins.

Dual with Mr. Parkinson :—Mrs. Heslop, Miss Leathart, Dr. Watt, Messrs.Elmes, Thirlwell, Heaton, Jewett, Wilson, G. Shaw, Gibson, George, Macalpine Downie, Pargeter, Bainbridge, and Capt. Milburn.

Solo :—Capt. Milburn. Miss Leathart, Drs. Dixon and Watt, Messrs. Leech, R. N. Thompson, C. Thompson, Mathews, H. Ellis, Turnbull and W. B. Ellis.

Report for week ending June 12.

Dual with Mr. Parkinson :—Sir J. Reed, Craig, Elmes, Jewett, Thirlwell,Gibson. Heaton, Turnbull, Wilson, Phillips, H. Ellis, Davey, Miss Leathart, and Mrs. Heslop.

Solo :—Miss Leathart, Messrs. Turnbull. H. Ellis, R. X. Thomspson, C. Thompson, Leech, W. B. Ellis, Phillips, Dixon, Todd and Mathews.

Report for week ending June 19.—Total flying time : 23 hrs. 20 mins.

Dual with Mr. Parkinson :—Mrs. Heslop, Messrs. Rasmussen, Elmes, Jewett, Heaton, Turnbull, Wilson, Irving, W. Todd, Davey, Maxwell, Pargeter,and Flying-Officer Dawson.

Solo :—Flying-Officer Dawson. Dr. Dixon, H. Ellis, Turnbull, C. Thomson, R. N. Thompson, Mathews, W. B. Ellis.

On Tuesday, Mr. Parkinson flew to Edinburgh, returning with Sir Sefton Brancker. After tea. Sir Sefton Brancker continued his journey to Sherburn in a Yorkshire Club Moth piloted by Mr. Fielden. Friday saw LX off service, and gales prevented any flying on Saturday and Sunday.

The Secretary is still confined to his bed, but it is a pleasure to report that he is making slow but steady progress."

[Interesting to see that his contemporaries in Newcastle included Connie Leathart;

Geoffrey finally got his aviator's certificate, No 9,240, on the 21 June 1930, at the Newcastle Aero Club.

"When the Auxiliary Air Force was created, he was very keen to join so he went straight to 608 Squadron at Thornaby Aerodrome."

[No. 608 Squadron was formed at Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire as No. 608 County of York (North Riding) Squadron, on 17 March 1930.]

Geoffrey then transferred to the Yorkshire Aero Club, at Yeadon:

July 8, 1932

"Six members joined the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club during June, amongst them being Mr. Geoffrey Shaw and Mr. A. C. Thornton. The latter is the designer of the 'Arrow Active', and his latest production, the 'Active II', has been much in evidence, being tested by F/O.H. H. Leech."

"He bought a small aeroplane for £60, it was absolutely gorgeous... I learned to fly in it too. It had an open cockpit, which is the nicest place to learn to fly. Just 4 cylinders, it was as light as a feather... he always let me fly it. If we got somewhere where we didn’t know he would say to me, wake me up before we land, I think he always thought he should be awake in case I mucked it."

 Avro Avian

The first aircraft registered to Geoffrey was a 1927-model Avro 594 Avian III, G-EBVA (he is listed as the 6th owner), followed by Avro 616 Avian IVM, G-ABMO, first registered in May 1931 to Francis Montague (although he doesn't look very happy about it):

And then, completely out of the blue in 1934 (he admitted he had never flown further than 'near Paris' before), Geoffrey decided to enter the "World's Greatest Air Race" - the MacRobertson Race from England to Australia.

He bought a brand-new B.A. Eagle I, G-ACVU, in July 1934, and had a special inscription painted on it - "The Spirit of Wm Shaw and Co Ltd, Wellington Cast Steel Foundry, Middlesborough, ENGLAND"

 Geoffrey with the Eagle, via Louise Wilkinson

He was allocated Race No 47. He bought his maps in late August, but wasn't sure they were accurate enough - and, he asked the organising committee, "What height should I fly at?" They replied, "We have no idea - you'll have to ask the people who sold you the aeroplane".

 ABC's Guide to the Macrobertson Race described him thus:

"G Shaw, a member of a wealthy Yorkshire family, recently resigned from the Royal Air Force. The fact that he was personal pilot to the late Sir Sefton Brancker, British Controller of Civil Aviation, is an indication of his flying calibre."

[The 'personal pilot to Sefton Brancker' stuff is probably nonsense - Brancker, together with Lord Thomson, the Air Minister, was killed in the disastrous wreck of the R101 airship near Beauvais, France early on 5 October 1930, during its maiden voyage to India. Geoffrey only got his aviator's certificate a few months before that.]

He got as far as Baghdad, though, before retiring with 'gear trouble', so got his £10 entrance fee back.  

Geoffrey married Elizabeth in July 1935; here they are with the Eagle during a Hungarian Holiday in August.

He then sold the aeroplane, and it later crashed into the sea off Corsica, on 13 Apr 1936.

Geoffrey continued with 608 Sqn, eventually taking over from Geoffrey Ambler:

The Times Nov 11 1938: "Royal Air Force Squadron Leader G. H. Ambler has relinquished the command of No. 608 (North Riding) (Fighter) Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, which he had held since December, 1934. He had served with the squadron since February 1931, a few months after it was established.

His successor is Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey Shaw, who is granted the acting rank of squadron leader from October 30. He has been with the squadron since August, 1930, and has held the rank of flight lieutenant since 1933. No. 608 was originally a bomber squadron, and was converted for fighter duties in January 1937, when it exchanged its Wapiti bombers for Demon fighters."

 Geoffrey Hill Ambler (q.v.)

Geoffrey bought himself another aeroplane; G-ADVH, a GAL Monospar Jubliee, from Albert Batchelor of Ramsgate. This aeroplane was impressed in March 1940 as X9365, but crashed at Saighton Camp 3 weeks later.

When WWII broke out, Geoffrey continued with 608 Sqn and was promoted to Wing Commander:

"By September 19th 1939, the squadron was available for anti-submarine patrol from 0600 hours to 1600 hours with four Ansons on standby, but the first operational flight of 608 Squadron was not made until the 21st. of September 1939, when an Anson serial number N5207, was flown by Squadron Leader G. Shaw, Flying Officer Woolcock and crewed by L.A.C. Kelly and Corporal Knott, who took off on an anti-submarine patrol in response to a false alarm.
Over Christmas and the New Year of 1940, everyone suffered freezing conditions and constant outbreaks of influenza"

THE KIPPER PATROL

 Remembered by some veterans as “the kipper patrol”, their job, as part of Coastal  Command, involved protecting shipping convoys, looking for submarines and defending the northern supply routes. Although their role was never seen as glamorous and never received national glory, nonetheless, they played a significant part in the defence of the United Kingdom. This book tells the story of young pilots such as Geoffrey Ambler, Geoffrey Shaw, William Appleby-Brown and Peter Vaux, and airmen such as Albert Guy, Harold Coppick and Syd Buckle, and considers how their lives were dramatically changed with the onset of the Second World War, which saw them cease to be part-timers and become full time members of the Royal Air Force.

http://www.pneumasprings.co.uk/The%20Kipper%20Patrol.htm

He was Mentioned in Despatches in July 1940, and awarded the DFC on 6 March, 1941.

"I still don’t know what he got his DFC for in 1941. He never told me anything about his work."

He continued flying after WWII; here is his post-war aviator's certificate:

Geoffrey died, after a long illness, in 1977 in Malta, aged 75. He is buried there.

"There are no photos of him left as he burnt them all one afternoon after the war ended."

  c. 1938

b. Ballybrophy, Ireland 4 Dec 1900

Recruited by Charles Kingsford Smith as a pilot for Australian National Airways 1929-30, then joined Imperial Airways

November 1935: "'PLANE OVERSHOOTS AERODROME Imperial Airways Pilot Injured. Rangoon, Saturday.

The right wing of an Imperial Airways 'plane was damaged at Rangoon to-day when the machine overshot the aerodrome when landing.

The pilot, Chief Pilot Mr J. S. Sheppard, was slightly injured, but the two passengers are said to be uninjured. The machine was an eastbound one.

It is understood that Captain Sheppard is one of the company's best-known pilots. A native of Ballybrophy, Ireland, he is 35 years of age and served in the R.A.F. from 1918-29. He was a member of the North Russian Relief Expedition in 1919. For a year he was a pilot with Australian National Airways. He is now pilot to the Imperial Airways on their Cairo-Khartoum service and stationed at Heliopolis, Egypt. In October, Captain Sheppard piloted the Imperial Airways liner 'Atlanta' when making a record day's flight of 1777 miles from Dodoma, Tanganyika, to Johannesburg."

Promoted to Senior Master in October 1938

Jack flew the last civilian flight out of Singapore in 1942, piloting an Imperial Airways Short Empire Flying Boat.

based Heliopolis

His son-in-law tells me that "Born in Kildare in 1900, Jack was a real 'rags to riches' story. From a poor Irish farm, he left school at 14 to become an engine mechanic. He joined the RFC as a mechanic and transferred to the RAF in 1918, qualifying as a PFO in time to just miss the end of WW1.

He flew as a Captain with the Expeditionary Force in Russia, rejoined the RAF having gone down a rank to retain a position. He regained his Captain / PFO position and was a pilot of DH3 biplanes out of Netheravon in 1923. He decided to move to civil aviation in 1929 and moved to Australia for 12 months (where he met Kingsford-Smith and others).

  1916, when a Flight Sub-Lt in the Royal Navy, aged 24

b Delaware, Ontario

photo: 1928, aged 28

 Eleanor Isabella 'Susan' Slade

 in 1928

The Bystander Special Aviation Edition, 1933

b. 10 January 1904 in Hong Kong

  The Sketch - October 1929

"The popular secretary of Airwork, Heston Air Park - Miss Eleanor Slade"

"Efficiently managing the day-to-day business [of the King's Cup] was dynamic little Susan Slade... herself a pilot of considerable ability who has her own Moth".

C G Grey

In Holland, with Lyndsey Everard et al

On one flight with her elder sister Betsy in 1938 over Germany, having missed their destination, they came down at the Berchtesgaden; Herr Hitler was away at the time, but the servants gave them a conducted tour.

Rallye Aerien, Chateau d'Ardenne 17-19 May 1930 with Adelaide Cleaver

She won the first All-Ladies Race at Sywell, Northants in September 1931 (the Hon. Mrs Victor Bruce was second).

Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII

Even with her perceived limitations as a pilot, Susan Slade was a hard-working and trusted administrator, and an extraordinary, talented and much-loved lady.
 

r., with ??, Connie Leathart, Lady Runciman, HH Leech, Flt Lt Clarkson

Susan lived at Mallard's Court, Stokenchurch and is buried in Stokenchurch..

She owned:

a 1927  DH.60X Moth (G-EBSA), then

a 1929 DH.60G Gipsy Moth (G-AAIW), and

a 1931 DH.80A Puss Moth (G-ABLX).