Flt-Lt Cyril Thomas Holmes

  1930

 

 

b. 17 April 1895

Father: Rev. William Perowne Holmes

Joined the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a 2nd-Lt and fought in France from 24 Dec 1914. Wounded. Later a Captain in the RFC and then Flt-Lt in the RAF.

 

8 Sep 1922:

"Great Flying Competition

MR. CYRIL T HOLMES ONE OF THE ENTRANTS.

'The circuit of Britain for the King's Cup starts at Croydon today (Friday) and gets to Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow, where a stop will be made for the night, and on Saturday via Manchester and Bristol, finishing at Coydon between four and six. The first machine will leave Croydon at 9 am today, and the rest will start off according to their handicap times. The first machine will be an Avro 'Baby' and the scratch machine is a Supermarine 'Sea Lion II' with a Napier engine. There are in all 23 entries, of which one third are of de Havilland design. 

An item of interest to local residents concerns entry number 6, that of Brigadier-General James G Weir, CMG. It is a Boulton and Paul 'P.9', 90hp RAF engine, flown by Mr C T Holmes. The P.9 is a small two seater touring machine designed after the war, especially as a cheap form of air run-about.

Mr Cyril Holmes is a well-known cross-Channel pilot now with the Instone Line. He was at one time with the old Airco Service. He was wounded in the infantry early in the war and joined the RFC in 1916. Serving overseas at the end of the war, he was running the RAF Air Mail service to Cologne.

He is a son of the Rev. W P Holmes, formerly vicar of St Bartholomew's, Christ Church," Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette

 

m. 1 Jun 1935 in Stoke Bishop, Bristol, Edith Mary [Talbot]

 In 1939, he was Chief Ground Flying Instructor for the Bristol Flying School.

 

d. Oct 1972 - Bath, Somerset

"Test pilot Mr Cyril Thomas Holmes, of Cherry Cottage, North Street. Norton St Philip, who died in Lansdown Nursing Home, Bath, on Wednesday last week at the age of 77, was a pioneer in aviation and had flown as a pilot on many types of aircraft for over 40 years.

Born in April. 1895, and educated at Eastbourne College. his long association with aviation began in 1916 when he was seconded from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment to the Royal Flying Corps. in which he served for the remainder of the war.

After the war he was an airline pilot from 1920 to 1923 with Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd., KLM (the Dutch airline) and Instone Air Line. He flew in the first King's Cup race in 1922 and received a silver tankard for completing the course. In 1923 he Joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a test pilot and later became instructor and manager of the flying school, retiring in October 1959.

He was a member of Bristol City Council from June 1960 to May 1964, representing the Westbury ward. Mr Holmes and his wife moved to Norton St Philip from Westbury-on- Trym in 1964. He had been a churchwarden at St Mary's, Henbury, Bristol, for about three years and soon after moving to Norton St Philip he was appointed to a similar office in the parish church in which he gave devoted service for some years. He was for several years secretary to the Norton St Philip branch of the Wells Division Conservative Association and he also took a keen interest in all matters appertaining to the welfare of the local community.

Mr Holmes leaves a widow and a son and daughter." - Somerset Standard

 

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