Aviator

  1927, when a medical student, aged 28

from Kalmalcolm, Scotland

  1930, aged 22

b. 7 April 1908, in Lambeth, London

As you can see, he was over 6ft 4in in height. Despite this, learnt to fly in Kent, got his aviator's certificate in 1930 and then became an instructor at Brooklands in Surrey.

Pilot, with Owen Cathcart Jones, of one of the D.H. Comets for the MacRobertson Race in 1934; given third prize (erroneously, in my view, but it's probably a bit late to say that now).

In 1935, got annoyed with Owen Cathcart Jones for something he said in his book that Ken felt "reflected on his courage and ability as a pilot", and even went to court over it. Owen replied that "that was the last thing he intended, as Mr. Waller and he had been, and still were, very good friends", which seemed to settle the matter.

He and Max Findlay competed in the Schlesinger Race to South Africa in 1936, in an Airspeed Envoy (No 13), but this crashed on take-off in Northern Rhodesia, killing Findlay and the radio operator; Ken was thrown out through a hole in the fuselage and badly hurt.

After WWII, became Miles Aircraft's chief test pilot (he delivered a Hillman Minx car to Orkney in 1948 at a cost of £35, you may remember). 

 One of the original 16 pilots of Imperial Airways in 1924

b. London 30 Sep 1898

119, Foxley Lane, Purley in 1932

The first in the UK to be awarded the Master Pilot's Certificate, in 1934.

 b. 22 Jul 1898, Walsall

d. 28 Aug 1923 - he was "Britain's first glider victim" and died at Upavon, 22 days after competing in the Air League Challenge Cup.

2 Jan 1928: "BAGDAD AIR LINER. FORCED LANDING IN DESERT SHORT OF PETROL Capt. Warner, an Imperial Airways pilot, who had been flying all night, at a point 50 miles south of the usual track, found the missing air liner 'City of Teharan' yesterday morning.

The liner was surrounded by Arabs, who were most friendly, offering the air passengers water, and undertaking to do anything else in their power to assist. Four persons were on board, apparently all well. The reason for the forced landing was that the craft ran out petrol. Sufficient was transferred from Capt. Warner's machine to enable the stranded liner reach the Rutba post, while the passengers and mails were conveyed in Capt. Warner's machine to Bagdad, none the worse for their adventure.

The wireless equipment of the stranded liner was working perfectly, but its messages were not picked up due to jamming caused by the multiplicity of messages between Bagdad and other stations on the desert route and the machines engaged in the search."

  1933, aged 22

a Cambridge M.A., "pilot for Parnall and Nash and Thompson; 6 feet 5in tall'. [Or possibly he was "over 6 ft 8in"!] 

Killed on 27 April 1944, in an accident when flying a prototype Gloster Meteor.

  1925, aged 27

A barrister from Harpenden, Hertfordshire.

     1928

In June 2004, Air Crash Investigation and Archaeology (ACIA) reported that 'the remains of ANEC Missel Thrush, G-EBPI, have been found on Broad Law, near St. Mary's Loch in the Scottish Borders.

The aircraft, a competitor in the King's Cup Air Race, crashed in cloud on 20th July 1928 during the Newcastle to Glasgow leg of the race. The pilot, Mr Guy Neville Warwick, was sadly killed.

ACIA members Jim Corbett, Scott McIntosh and Alan Hudson discovered the fragmented remains after a long search on the southern slopes of the mountain, eventually finding the fragments in a stream below the reported crash location. Reports that the engine remained on the mountain proved unfounded."

  A wheel from the aircraft - Museum of Flight

   1926, aged 20

'Dangerous Dan'; address given as c/o Brooklands Automobile Racing Club, Surrey.

Killed in WWII: 6th October 1940, in a Swordfish from HMS Furious off Clacton; buried there (CWGC 24913106)

   1917,when a 2nd Lieut, The Buffs

b. 15 Jun 1896 in Tunbridge Wells

   1931

"The first overseas entrant for the King's Cup air race—Mr. John C. Webster, of Montreal —wants to take the cup back to Canada and fill it with snow. 'Snow' he said, 'is a good friend of the Canadian flier.'

'I made the longest flight of my life when I made the practice flight over the course for the King's Cup race', he confessed, with a boyish smile, 'though I have been flying for three years. The course is nearly 1,000 miles long, and we don't often fly as much as that in a day—even in Canada. When I start in the race from Heston Air Park on July 25th, I will be starting the hardest day's flying of my life'.

'Britain may not be very big, but viewed from the air there is so darned much of it. Out there, you can fly hundreds of miles without noticing much difference in the landscape, but here everything down below seems to be all of a heap. And that just about describes your weather, too.'

Mr. Webster is a member of the Montreal Flying Club, whose chief instructor is Captain ("Tony") Spooner, brother of Miss Winifred Spooner, the famous woman flier."

"TRAGEDY has overtaken Mr. J. C. Webster, the Canadian pilot who recently took part in the King's Cup air race on a Curtiss-Reid "Rambler." While flying over St. Hubert [Montreal] aerodrome, it is stated, the machine got into a spin and crashed, Mr. Webster sustaining injuries from which he died later in hospital. His death occurred a few hours before an official reception, which was to have been given to celebrate Webster's return from England."

From Shediac, N.B. His father established the Webster Memorial Trophy - the premier Canadian aviation award - in his memory.

'Pebbler' Webster, from Walsall.

1927 Schneider Cup winner; later Air Vice Marshall; died 1984

  1925, aged 32

Lady Mary Bailey's brother

[m. 1919

The Hon. Alice Florence [Blacker-Douglass], from Devon but b. Dublin 20 Jan 1895; owned a 1929 DH.60G Gipsy Moth, G-AAJZ.]

 with daughter Cynthia, 1924 - The Tatler

Wednesday 11 March 1936: "The Hon. Richard Westenra, brother of Lord Rossmore, was respondent to his wife's petition before Sir Boyd Merriman in the London Divorce Court yesterday and co-respondent in another suit In the first of the two connected suits.

Mrs. Allies Florence Westenra (nee Blacker Douglass). of Seafield, Millbrooke. Jersey, sought a decree nisi against the Hon. Richard Westenra on the grounds of his misconduct at a Brighton hotel in February, 1935, with Mrs. Margaret Cecilia Suliven Hope. The suit was undefended."

Richard d. 1944. Lady Mary was at his funeral.

 in 1917

b. Ascot 27 Mar 1898

Flight Engineer 1924-27, pilot on Cairo-Delhi route 1927-30

   1948, aged 46

b. 27 Sep 1903, Bitterley, Ludlow

Ed. Eton, University of Cambridge

RAF 1925-55: RAF Officer (Engineering); at Boscombe Down and Farnborough during WWII

Trustee, Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust, Old Warden, Beds, from 1947 to 1980

4th place in the Kemsley Challenge Trophy, Birmingham, 31 Jul 1949

1 of 3 assessors, BOAC DH106 Comets G-ALYP & G-ALYY Accident Enquiry, Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation, 19 Oct to 24 Nov 1954

Wrote ' That Nothing Failed Them' (1963),  'Building Aeroplanes for those Magnificent Men' (1965), and 'Flying Between the Wars' (1972)

Aviation Consultant and Technical Advisor to the film industry, including 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' (1965) and 'The Blue Max' (1966)

Member of GAPAN, 22 Sep 1966

President of RAeS Bedford Branch (FRAeS), 1977-78

d 1 Jan 1984 - Whistley Bridge, Berks

Research: thanks to Steve Brew

b. 30 Dec 1896 - Lincolnshire

Dorsetshire Regt. in WWI, a 'gallant officer of fine judgement and power of leadership'. Later Group Captain.

Killed in the crash of Imperial Airways' ''Hannibal', which disappeared on a flight in the Persian Gulf, 1st Mar 1940; commemorated on the Singapore Memorial.

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

from Flight, August 1941: "Capt. White joined the R.A.F. in 1921 as Boy Mechanic and left the service in December, 1930, with the rank of Sergeant Pilot. He joined Imperial Airways the following year, and in 1933 he was seconded as pilot to the Iraq Petroleum Company, which at that time were laying a 1,200 mile long oil pipe line from Haifa, in Palestine, to Kirkuk, Iraq.

He was transferred to the European Division of Imperial Airways in 1935, and operated the London-Budapest route. It may be remembered that in 1936 Capt. White established a record by flying the 2,970 miles from London to Brindisi, via Marseilles, and back to London in 18 hours.

On the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937 he piloted pressmen from Alexandria to Penang, one of the longest charter flights on record. In the same year Capt. White represented Imperial Airways in Berlin at the international conference on ice formation, a subject on which he was an authority.

He was seconded to Atfero in the spring of this year and had flown something like one million miles. On the first Atlantic flight in 1940 he acted as navigator. 

He was amongst those killed when Liberator AM261 crashed into Goat Fell mountain on Isle of Arran after take-off from Heathfield Ayr on the 10 Aug 1941 (22 killed - 5 crew and 17 travelling as passengers)

One of the original 16 pilots of Imperial Airways in 1924

RFC in WWI; flew the Folkestone - Cologne Army Mail in 1918-19.

Handley Page Test Pilot 1920-24.

October 1926: "FLYING OVER A STORM Capt A. S. Wilcockson, an Imperial Airways pilot, who flew from London to Amsterdam and back yesterday, reported on landing at Croydon that there is a severe storm all along the coast, and that he had observed several vessels, principally fishing boats, driven ashore on the Belgian and Dutch sands. On his return journey he counted eight vessels in distress on the shore."

Jan 1928: "AIR LINER KILLS TWO ROOKS. BIRDS MISJUDGE DISTANCE. While flying a Handley-Page liner over Kent yesterday Captain A. S. Wilcockson, an Imperial Airways pilot, flew into a flock of rooks and killed two of them. He was at a height of 500 feet, and saw the rooks approaching him at the same level. They came steadily on, and made no attempt to avoid the air liner until within fifty feet. They then divided into two flocks to pass the machine.

One bird in each flock misjudged the distance, and they were caught by the machine and killed. The air liner was undamaged."

 Awarded Master Pilot's Certificate in 1935

Feb 1938: "PICK-A-BACK 'PLANE UP FOR TEST Atlantic Pilot Sees How It's Done. The Mayo composite aircraft made a second successful separation test flight at Rochester yesterday. Captain Lankaster Parker, chief test pilot of Short Brothers, who was in the control cabin of the lower component, had as passenger Captain A. S. Wilcockson, Imperial Airways Atlantic pilot."

 August 1940: "U.S. Bombers To Fly To Britain. The bombers will take off from Canada, and the flights will be supervised by Capt. A. S. Wilcockson, the famous Imperial Airways pilot, whose services have been lent to the Ministry of Aircraft Production. He arrived in Canada yesterday, along with Capt. D. C. T. Bennett, a veteran Imperial Airways pilot, and Wing Commander Griffith Powell, a former Imperial Airways Transatlantic pilot. Capt. Wilcockson, who served in the Flying Corps during the last war, made a number of survey flights across the Atlantic in 1937. In 1928 he made a record commercial liner flight, from London to Paris in eighty minutes."

  1933, when a bank clerk, aged 24

'Assistant instructor to the Insurance Flying Club'