Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet
I didn't know there was any connection to the Royal Flying Corps around here. Always surprises with this local history thingy
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It's not the only one. According to
Northumberland Aviation Diary, on 11th May 1914, BE.2a No.228 belonging to 2 Sqdn, RFC landed at Hauxley en-route Montrose, Angus to Netheravon, Wiltshire. The CO of the unit, a Major Burke, was flying the aircraft. I know there are errors in that book and I am not entirely sure that the date is accurate, although it would have probably happened a couple of days later.
My records state that 2 Sqdn departed Montrose on the 11th, arrived at Edinburgh that evening, spent the night of the 12th at Berwick and the 13th at Blyth before arriving at Seaton Carew on the 14th, where Burke was the last to arrive on that date. The ten aircraft had left Montrose for the annual "Concentration Camp" exercise - the term clearly having a different connotation back then. It is unlikely that Burke could have flown from Montrose to Hauxley in a single day in 1914 although not impossible, whilst such feats were probably beyond the capabilities of the junior pilots. Burke would have wished the squadron's aircraft to fly short journeys each day to allow for wear and tear, maintenance and refuelling, and the fatigue of the pilots. The 11th was a Monday and the squadron would in all likelihood not have flown on weekends in peacetime. The ground element - in six trucks - waited at Blyth on the morning of the 14th until all ten aircraft had left for Seaton Carew before departing for that destination themselves, and chances are this had happened wherever the landing fields near Berwick or Blyth were.
Whilst at Hauxley, the aircraft was guarded by a local policeman, according to a photo published in
Northumberland Aviation Diary. I am unsure as to whether Burke was visiting friends, had stopped for refreshment (this sort of thing happened on long-distance flights in those days) or was forced to land due to lack of fuel or a mechanical problem.
As a postscript to this story, one of the other aircraft flying down to Wiltshire was destroyed in a forced landing near Northallerton on the 15th, killing both airmen on board.
Graeme