Aviator

  1919

 1920, aged 24

 b. 3 Dec 1896 in Georgetown, South Africa

Appointed Temporary Captain for service with the forces in E Africa from 1st July 1916 (the day that the Battle of the Somme began) and then went on to join the RNAS and then the RAF. Flying the Sopwith Camel, he ended the War with 39 victories before being rested in 1918, and was transferred to the unemployed list in September 1919.

Got married in Kobe, Japan, in 1921 to Hazel Thorne - she was from London, so I've no idea why they were in Japan.

August 1925: "AIRMAN KILLED WHEN MOTOR CAR SKIDS. 'Death by misadventure' was the verdict at the inquest at Guildford on William Lancelot Jordan, of Greylake, Beaconsfield Road, Blackheath who died in Guildford Hospital from injuries received when thrown from his motor car on the Hog's Back, near Guildford, on Thursday night (20 Aug).

Jordan, who was in the Air Force during the war and brought down about seventy enemy aeroplanes, was driving with his wife from Bournemouth to Blackheath when his car skidded on the wet road, struck the bank, and turned over twice. It was stated at the inquest that Jordan had not been driving at excessive speed. His first question after the accident was 'Is my wife all right?' Mrs Jordan was seriously injured, but is recovering."

 Born 25^th June 1902 in Aukland, New Zealand

Distinguished Flying Cross in June 1940:

"This officer was captain of an aircraft ordered to attack important targets in the forests south of Bourlers and Baileux during a night in June. In spite of extremely difficult conditions, and in the face of severe opposition, he successfully bombed the objective, starting several fires which gave accurate direction to other aircraft of this sortie. He then descended to a low altitude and, again in the face of heavy opposition, attacked the woods with all his machine guns. Sqn. Ldr. Kay has conducted a number of operations in recent weeks and has shown daring, determination and outstanding ability."

Cyril Eyton Kay, Hewett's co-pilot, is also his fellow citizen. He was born at Auckland on June 25, 1902. In 1925 he obtained a Short-Service commission (F/O.) in the R.A.F., and was sent from England to Egypt, where he promptly developed enteric and was invalided back after three months in hospital. Between 1926 and 1929 he was with No. 5 F.T.S. (Sealand), No. 2 Squadron (Manston), and, as navigation officer, with No. 26 at Catterick, after a course at Calshot.

In 1929, with F/O. Harold Piper, Kay obtained special leave and flew from London to Sydney in a Desoutter I monoplane. The flight was interrupted for three weeks by a forced landing on the island of Western Baronga, off Burma. Returning to England in 1930, Kay took an Instructor's course at the C.F.S. (Wittering), and was posted, until the end of 1931, as instructor to No. 2 F.T.S. (Digby). He then left the Service, but remained in England until the end of 1932 as demonstration pilot with a commercial company. In 1931 he visited the Wasserkuppe and achieved the distinction of being the first Britisher to secure the "C" gliding certificate. During the last two years he has continued civil flying in New Zealand. Both he and Hewett are married. Delivery of the "Dragon Six" now being built...

Kay, who has held a short-term commission with the Royal Air Force, flew from England to Australia with a brother Flying Officer, Piper, in a Desoutter, in 1930. He is one of the very few men in Australia who holds a second class Air Navigator's Certificate.

ABCs Guide, 1934

d. 29 Apr 1993 in London, aged 90

 Sgt-Mech Thomas Darrell Kay

 b. 20 October 1884 in Creswick, Victoria, Australia.

"Before enlisting in the Australian Flying Corps in 1915, Sgt Kay was employed as an engineer by Ronaldson and Tippett, machinery manufacturers, of Ballarat. He is known by many local residents"

In 1922, in the sordid 'Ballarat Sensation', Sgt Kay had his face slashed by a razor wielded by Susanna Masters and her brother Maurice Wall. Susanna said she had lived with Kay, who "threatened to expose her to her husband because she had refused to marry him. She told Kay she could not marry a man already supporting two illegitimate children, and also accused of being responsible for another child in England". She reckoned that he was "lucky he did not get more. He is the worst type of man I ever met".

He absconded from the hospital where he was being treated, and disappeared; Susanna (who reportedly had "a fine personality", whatever that means) and Maurice were eventually let off.

d. 19 May 1963

  1938

An aeronautical Engineer from Yorkshire, b. 1892. RAeC Certificates 1222 (1915) and 15944 (1938). Test pilot for Blackburn until 1925.

Schneider Trophy pilot in 1923 in the Blackburn 'Pellet'; he had a lucky escape when during take-off "The starboard wing tip float touched, and the machine turned over on its nose and sank. For what seemed a very long time there was no sign of the pilot, and fears were entertained that he had not been able to extricate himself. Suddenly, however, he appeared, bobbing up like a cork, and climbing on top of the wreck was picked up by one of the many motor launches which sped to his assistance as soon as the crash occurred. He promptly fainted on getting safely on to the wreckage, but was soon revived and brought back to his hotel, nursed by Mrs. Kenworthy, who. was in the motor launch Vivid which was among those standing by. He had had quite a marvellous escape, and seemed none the worse for his experience. It was stated that someone actually timed Kenworthy, who was said to have been under water for 61 seconds. He later related how, when the machine turned turtle, he found himself inside the cockpit with his head on the floor and his feet pointing towards the cockpit opening, which he could dimly see. Holding his nose with one hand he wriggled free and shot to the surface."

  photo: 1928, aged 29

Known as Glen. Survived being torpedoed in WWI on the cruiser 'Hague', had several narrow escapes when motor racing, and in November 1929, he was the only survivor when Junkers tri-motor D-903 crashed near Caterham and caught fire. He "escaped through a hole in the side of the aeroplane almost immediately after it struck the ground, and Prince Eugen [zu Schaumburg-Lippe] fought his way out a little later; but by the time would-be rescuers had arrived there was no hope of saving the others." The Prince died the following day.

Glen spent the winter abroad, then in May 1930, his widowed mother having died, put his house up for sale; Nyn Park, Northaw, near Potters Bar, "nearly a square mile with a small mansion". And a lake.

And a 9-hole golf course. Oh, and 25 cottages. A few smallholdings....

In April 1931 he and Owen Cathcart Jones broke the England to Capetown record, but shortly afterwards (5 May) he was killed in the Drakensburg Mountains, Natal; the aircraft he had borrowed, while his Vega was being overhauled, broke up in mid-air during a storm.

Nyn Park was sold, and the estate broken up. The small (23-bedroom) mansion was bought after WWII by the Alexandra Hospital for Children but never used, and burned down in 1963.

  1918, when 2nd Lieut, RAF, aged 32

possibly John King, b 1886, from Birmingham; RAeC certificate 7436

'Pat' King, later an Air Vice Marshall

 1933, aged 20

From Perth, 'a student'

photo: 1925, aged 26

b. Marcos Antonio in Altrincham, Cheshire on 17th April 1898; a 'shipper', but also Comper's Sales Manager.

Flt-Lt in WWII; d.  11th Feb 1946 in a flying accident in a Mosquito, and is buried near Litchfield.

  1930

b. Ethel Ruth Nicholson in Shepperton, 5 Jun 1913. Her parents were Capt William Henry Nicholson and Sybil Wigham.

Educated at Roedean, got her 'matric', and went into welding research as an engineer, working for Arc Manufacturing Co. in Shepherd's Bush.

She married John Lambton in March 1934, and they had one son.

In 1937, she and the Hon. Ruth Cokayne took a 'light-hearted summer tour' to Budapest (via Brussels, Cologne, Munich, and Salzburg) in a Gipsy Moth; a trip which they reckoned cost them about £55 each in total.

 Ruth C (l) and Ruth L (r) ('Flight')

They muddled along in a breathless, schoolgirlish sort of way. In Frankfurt, all their possessions were confiscated but then 'we found ourselves in the officers' mess, where the entire squadron shook our hands with the utmost solemnity, clicked heels, Heiled Hitler and gave us lunch! Another round of handshakes, our belongings were duly returned to us, and we Heiled Hitler gratefully ourselves as we took off'.

She was an early recruit to the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in 1940, starting on the 25th June as W.20 - the 20th woman employed by the ATA. (Ruth Cokayne also joined the ATA, as W.40, in April 1941). see Lambton, Ethel Ruth (W.20) (ata-ferry-pilots.org)

  1928, aged 29

Originally from Scotland; son of Bonar Law. In 1939 a member of the Insurance Flying Club.

Apparently he had a lisp, but was very able.

 Constance Ruth Leathart

  in 1927, aged 24

b. 7 December 1903 in Low Fell, County Durham; known as 'Connie'.

"Five foot three and of generous proportions" (Lettice Curtis);

[Check]

"a very experienced pre-war racing pilot and... looked like George Robey" (Mary du Bunsen).

[I'm not so sure this is fair... here's a picture of George Robey for comparison:

Hmmm...]

"One of the first 20 British women pilots to obtain the RAeC certificate"

[Amazing - as Connie got her certificate No. 8,085 in 1927, 14 years after the first woman pilot Hilda Hewlett - but true; she was only the 12th woman to get an RAeC certificate]

l to r Edith Chalmers, Adelaide Cleaver, Sir Sefton Brancker, Rosalind Norman and Connie before the start of the 1930 Heston Spring Flying Cruise to Germany

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, with Leslie Runciman (q.v.), she ran Cramlington Aircraft, a company which repaired damaged aeroplanes. She also designed and flew her own glider.

Leslie Runciman and Connie (centre)

She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, and then Ethelburgas School back in Newcastle. By 1939, her mother had moved to Ottery St Mary in Devon, but Connie was still in the north-east, at Morpeth in Northumberland.

In December 1939, aged 35, working in the map department at Bristol Airport, she applied to join the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). Her experience at the time was over 700 hours, making her one of the most experienced women pilots in the UK, so she started as soon as they could sort themselves out (Pauline Gower was only allowed to take on 8 women to begin with)... which turned out to be August 1940. She was 'W.13' - the 13th woman pilot taken on by the ATA.

Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII

---

The Times wrote "She continued flying until 1958 when, reluctantly, she finally disposed of the last of her aeroplanes.

Connie Leathart remained a reserved, private person who shunned any form of publicity. In a sense this was a pity as many of her feats went unremarked. In retirement she farmed in Northumberland, where she bred Kyloe cattle [actually, it seems that "she did not breed Kyloe cattle; she did once have a couple of them, but both were bullocks"] and raised sheep. An accomplished horsewoman throughout her life, she continued into her fifties to ride regularly to hounds with the Morpeth and Tynedale hunts. She never married."

A friend of hers tells me: "I knew her for the last 20 years of her life, she was my parents' employer and my grandparents' before them. An amazing and eccentric and very kind lady."

Died 4 November 1993 in Northumberland, aged 89

...

and John G D 'Jack' Armour (q.v.), who was her first flying instructor in the ATA, was her cousin(!)

Connie owned

 RAeC

the 1922 Sopwith Grasshopper (WO 2698, G-EAIN, the only one ever built, which she acquired in 1928),

a 1927 DH.60 Moth (G-EBRX, later PH-KLG),

a 1929 Westland Widgeon IIIa (WA1776, G-AAJF), and

a 1932 Comper Swift, G-ABUU.

photo: 1926, aged 18

Haliburton H Leech was born 16 Apr 1908, in Wylam-on-Tyne, Northumberland. He competed in 6 King’s Cup races – every year from 1929 to 1934.

His father, Dr. (later Sir) Joseph William Leech, J. P., was the Sheriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and later its M.P.; at the time they lived in Wylam Hall, which according to English Heritage is a vast “rambling house built in the 15th century with 18th-19th century alterations, since divided into 3 apartments”. Haliburton was the youngest of 3 sons.

He went to Harrow from 1922 to 1925, then gained his Royal Aero Club Certificate (No 7993) at Cramlington with the Newcastle-on-Tyne Aero Club, flying a D.H. Moth, on the 10 Apr 1926.

In 1931, Flight described him thus:

“… a well-known figure at flying meetings, as his aerobatic demonstrations in the Martlet are always amongst the prettiest to be seen.

He entered Cranwell as a cadet in 1925, finally leaving there and being posted to Tangmere in 1927.  

He was promoted to Flying Officer in July 1929, and in 1930 went to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, and has since been engaged on a great deal of test work, flying a large variety of machines.

This year he was selected as one of the members to join the High Speed Flight at Felixstowe preparatory to receiving his training to take part in the forthcoming Schneider Trophy Race, but, much to his disappointment, he was later sent back to Farnborough, as it was found that there were too many pilots in the flight.

F/O. Leech has raced on numerous occasions in light aircraft, and is always consistent.”

However, during one such aerobatic demonstration, one cynic pointed out that "After all it does not matter if he does crash, as his father is a doctor!”

He was posted to the School of Naval Co-operation, Lee-on-the-Solent, on the 1st March 1934, then (as a Flight Lieutentant)  to No. 824 (F.S.R.) Squadron, Upavon, on the 8th October 1934.

Here he is (with a bandaged left hand) with Leslie Runciman, 'C.C', and Connie Leathart, amongst others

He was best man at his elder brother Basil's wedding to Grace Luckham in September 1937, then married Miss Ruth Janet Chernocke Elliott (the younger daughter of Mr and Mrs A E Elliott of Little Hill, Bromeswell, Woodbridge) at Eyke Church, Suffolk on 9th October 1937. The happy couple then left by air, from Martlesham, 'for abroad'.

He died 5th May 1939, in St Bartholomews Hospital, when he was only 31 - I don't know why, I'm afraid. Perhaps it was as a result of a flying accident, or perhaps natural causes. Unusually, 'Flight Magazine', who carried innumerable references to his flying displays, carried no news of his death - normally they would have produced a short obituary of someone so well-known in aviation circles.

His gravestone (with thanks to the Gravestone Photographic Resource) is in Eyke Church:

 "To the beloved and wonderful memory of Haliburton Hume Leech".

His father, Sir Joseph, died a year later.

Ruth married a Mr Foster in 1940 and died in 1986 in Ipswich; she was referred to as 'Ruth Janet C Lady Foster'.

He competed in loads of air pageants and races throughout the 30s, including:

- The Kingston-upon-Hull Air Race, at the Hull Air Pageant  which was held to celebrate the opening of the Hull Aero Club clubhouse in April 1930.

The 7 entrants were Leech (flying "Miss Perry's D.H. Moth G-AASG" *); Winnie Brown flying her Avian G-EBVZ; Winifred Spooner in her D.H. Moth G-AALK; Ivor Thompson (D.H. Moth G-AACL); Alfred Jackaman (D.H. Moth G-AADX); Robert Cazalet in his Westland Widgeon G-EBRM, and Capt G Thorne in Avro Avian G-AAHJ.

Leech finished first but was disqualified for ‘not turning at one of the marks’.

* Miss Violet Perry (seen here), who flew at the Berks Bucks and Oxon Club, is not listed as the owner of G-AASG, though; it apparently belonged to 'Miss M Shillington'.

September 25, 1932 saw him coming 3rd in the Yorkshire Trophy Race - "175 and a half miles over two triangular circuits" in the Arrow Active, behind Edgar Percival in a Gull, and Col. Louis Arbon Strange in his Spartan.

Later, "F/O. Leech gave one of his thrilling, if not hair-raising, displays on the Arrow Active."

 In July 1933 he was in the Cinque Ports Wakelfield Cup Race; coming 3rd in a Pobjoy-engined Comper Swift.

A few weeks later (12 August 1933), he put up the fastest time in the London to Newcastle Race in Richard Shuttleworth's Gypsy-engined Comper Swift G-ABWW, but ended up 5th (of 10) on handicap. He received a cheque for £10 for his effort; the 166.09 mph was "the highest registered speed obtained on any British light aircraft" at the time.

In July 1937, he was one of 15 competitors in the Devon Air Race (which also included Alex Henshaw, Connie Leathart, Tommy Rose and Geoffrey de Havilland). He came 3rd, in a Spartan Arrow.

In the King’s Cup:

1 - G-EAUM (1929)

This aircraft was a real-old-timer, an Avro 534 ‘Baby’, first registered in July 1920. Squadron Leader Harold Payn had raced it in 1922, and R. A. Whitehead (who sold it to Leech) in 1928. Leech, in turn, sold the aircraft to H.R.A. Edwards, and it was finally withdrawn from use in November 1934.

This Southern Martlet 205 had only been registered in January 1931, and belonged to Miss J Forbes-Robinson. Theodore C Sanders flew it in the 1933 King’s Cup race. It was withdrawn from use in 1940, but went to the ATC during WWII, until it was finally cancelled in December 1945.

After the race, it was stored at Yeading until 1957 before being completely renovated in 1958, with the installation of a 145-hp Gipsy Major engine. It survives, and is now in the Real Aeroplane Collection at Breighton Aerodrome, Selby, Yorks.

Unfortunately, the registration of this brand-new Percival D.3 ‘Gull Six’ did not prove prophetic; Leech only managed fifth in the heats, despite averaging 160mph. The Gull went on to re-appear in the Kings’ Cup in 1938, flown by H Thomas-Ferrand, and was then sold in Australia in May 1939.

Haliburton Hume Leech - Wikipedia

Lionel Louis Leleu

  b. London 29 Jun 1897

pilot with Berkshire Aviation Tours until 1926, then Imperial Airways

Lived at 67 Wavertree Rd, Streatham Hill, London in 1932

Killed in the crash of the AW Argosy II G-AACI 'City of Liverpool' in Belgium on 28th March 1933.

In April 1933, "Mrs Leleu, widow of Captain Leleu the Imperial Airways pilot, who lost his life in the disaster to the "City of Liverpool" last month, gave birth to a son yesterday at her home at Purley. Both mother and child are doing well."

"The late Capt. Leleu at one time held a commission in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry"

photo: 1931, aged 57

A retired officer, born in Edinburgh, living in Kenya. "I have no great opinion of the value of air-racing today. As a sport it is far behind, say, pig-sticking, steeplechasing or polo".

Address, c/o the Conservative Club, London.

Runner-up in his only King's Cup, though, at the age of 63; impressive.

Heading back to Kenya after the race, he and Mrs Lewin underwent a frightful ordeal; they spent 10 days on a tiny, mosquito-infested island in the Nile swamp after getting lost and making a forced landing. The Whitney Straight entangled its wheels in the grass and nosed over; they had to extricate themselves, to find that they only had a packet of sandwiches and a gallon of water between them, which they made to last for about 3 days.

Luckily they were spotted after 4 days by an Empire Flying boat ('Cassiopeia' - piloted by Capt. John Cecil Kelly-Rogers - which dropped food supplies. The rescue was then organised by telephone from 150 miles away - "the distance of the nearest white man."

Mike Pease tells me that "My father knew him quite well in Kenya many years ago and I met with him on several occasions when I part-owned a Tiger Moth (VP-KDU). The old general caused a real stir when he crash landed in the Sud in Southern Sudan (my father was Commissioner of Police) which resulted in enormous expenditure to rescue him.

At Njoro, where we farmed, he once chopped off the head of a Kikuyu woman who was illegally crossing the airstrip on which he was coming in to land. The propeller on his plane causing the damage! "

Mike Blake added this: "His first a/c, at least a/c with Kenyan connections was DH 60GIII Moth VP-KAU. Next he owned Miles M.2F Hawk Major VP-KBL which was written off at Tilesford Aerodrome Pershore 19 Aug 1935. His second Hawk Major was VP-KBT which was sold in New Zealand as ZK-AFJ. [He also briefly operated DH 80 Puss Moth VP-KCO but this was impressed at the outbreak of WWII.]

The Whitney Straight which came to grief in the Sudan was G-AEZO."

 Mike B also reckons that Mike's Tiger Moth VP-KDU was "more likely VP-KDR which was owned by the General after the War. KDU was a Piper Pacer, in fact the first Piper a/c to appear on the Kenya register."

'Flight' reported his death in 1952: "We regret to hear of the death, in Nairobi last week, of Brigadier-General A. C. Lewin, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., at the age of 78. Known as the "flying general," he took up private flying on retirement from a distinguished military career. He was runner-up in the 1937 King's Cup Air Race, and as recently as this year he won the East African Aerial Derby.

Born in July 1874, Arthur Corrie Lewin was educated at Cheltenham and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He entered the King's Regiment in 1895, served with the Mounted Infantry in South Africa from 1899 to 1902, and joined the 19th Hussars in 1905. He served throughout the 1914-18 war, and was A.D.C. to H.M. the King from 1918 to 1941. In 1931 he learned to fly, at the age of 57, and in the same year flew solo from Britain to Kenya, after only 50 hours' solo. Since then he had owned ten personal aircraft and had flown over 2,500 hours as a private pilot. He flew between Kenya and Britain several times; on one such flight, in 1937, he and his wife were marooned for ten days in a Sudan swamp where his aircraft had force-landed; they were rescued by Dinka tribesmen. In the same year he came second in the King's Cup Air Race, and was also appointed an honorary air commodore, R.A.F.V.R.

During the Second World War he flew as Sub-Area Commander and later as Welfare Officer with the R.A.F. East African Command. On March 2nd of this year, flying a Tiger Moth, General Lewin won the Aerial Derby, main event in the Aero Club of East Africa's Air Rally, and was presented with the East African Standard Cup. A recent and well-deserved award, that of the Royal Aero Club's Bronze Medal, was made in recognition of the General's 'outstanding record of private flying.'"

  1930, aged 34

 An engineer, from London

Competed in 1933 and 1934 in G-ABVW 'Jason 4', the D.H. Moth he bought from Amy Johnson.

  1932, aged 28

 1936, aged 32

b. 9 Aug 1904 in Wichelsea, E Sussex; son of the President of the Royal Academy.

An instructor at Hanworth.

With Mrs Jill Wyndham, broke the Cape Town-England record in 1935 (6 days 12hr 7min). [I say, who is this Mrs Jill Wyndham, and did Mr Wyndham know about this? ^*]

Apparently, they had intended also to lower the record for the outward trip. "... they were going strongly, but their chances were ruined by a forced landing in an African rice field. The aircraft was set down by the light of lamps carried by an Arab funeral procession."

He had also flown solo in a "little Aeronca" to Johannesburg, and here he is, in it:

[To be more precise, in the 23 days between the 7th February and 1st March 1936, he flew from Hanworth to Rand Airport, Johannesburg, to deliver the machine to a private buyer. The 2-cylinder engine of an Aeronca produced 40hp.]

Killed 21 September 1938 in an accident in a BA Swallow.

[ ^*It seems that Doris Jillian Wyndham

b. 11 May 1911,

was a former pupil of Mr Llewellyn. Or possibly of Tom Campbell Black, if we are to believe Harald Penrose.

Her son tells me that "she died in 1963 at the age of 52. Lt Cdr Wyndham did know about the record attempt!"]

  1916, aged 24

 'Scruffie' Longton, from Lancashire. 11 victories in WWI flying SE5s; DFC and bar.

Well known pre-war motor-cycling, and post-war aeroplane racer; whilst practising for the Bournemouth Air Meeting in April 1927, his aeroplane was hit by "one or two charges of shot from a sporting gun", possibly in protest at flying races on a Good Friday. A reward of £25 was offered for the detection of the culprit.

He was killed soon after - June 1927 - in a mid-air collision at the Bournemouth Whitsun Meeting, flying the prototype Bluebird.

"Every aircraft constructor knew that 'Longton's opinion' was worth having on anything new." C G Grey