Mr William 'Bill' Humble MBE | ||
photo: 1930, aged 19 |
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b. 14 April 1911 in Doncaster The Aeroplane described him in 1936 as "A mining engineer ... has to climb up several thousand feet to get into his Speed Hawk Six - from the bottom of the family coal mine." (Ha!) [From 1937 his father, also called William, was Chairman of the Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries, Ltd, until they were nationalised. William Snr was a keen racehorse owner; his horse 'Nearula' won the 2000 Guineas in 1953 and he died in 1964 aged 89.] Bill didn't work in the family coal mine, however. From 1939 to 1948, he was test pilot for Hawkers - initially testing Hurricanes, right up to the prototype Sea Hawk - then later in their Sales Department in the Middle East. d. 1 Mar 1992 His grand-daughter is Kate Humble, the TV presenter. (See 'Who Do You Think You Are', Series 6). She says 'He was unbelievably handsome ... a rogue, a very good-looking rogue. I was 23 when he died. He lived abroad, but came back to England in the late 1980s, when he got ill. Because he wasn't a good father to my father, and didn't really like children, I only got to know him better when I was an adult.' |