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Early Aviators - 151 to 200

Holders of RAeC Aviators Certificates 151 through 200

151 Frank Martin Ballard
    Gained Certificate on 31 October 1911.
     
152 Lt. Henry Harold Harford
    Gained Certificate on 7 November 1911. Used a Bristol biplane at Brooklands, a Lieutenant in the Rpyal Field Artillery in 1911 he was born in Lahore, India on 1 January 1887.
     
153 Mrs. Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks
    Gained Certificate on 7 November 1911. Licence test flights at Hendon using a Farman biplane, the second British woman to hold a licence. Gave up flying following a serious flying accident at Hendon in 1913.
     
154 Eustace B. Loraine
    Gained Certificate on 7 November 1911. Holder of French certificate no. 126, died in a crash in a Nieuport 70 Gnome Monoplane on Salisbury Plain 5 July 1912, the first RFC officer to die in this way; Staff-Sergeant R.H.V.Wilson, his passenger, also died in the crash.
     
155 Oswald Lawrence Mellersh
    Gained Certificate on 14 November 1911. 1892-1974 Moved to Canada in 1925
     
156 Sub.-Lt. Francis Esmé Theodore Hewlett RN
    Gained Certificate on 14 November 1911. Used a Farman Biplane at Brooklands. Son of the first woman to hold a licence, Hilda Hewlett. Took part in the Cuxhaven Raid in 1914. Transferred to the Royal Air Force and then Royal New Zealand Air Force.
     
157 Robert Bertram Slack
    Gained Certificate on 14 November 1911.
     
158 Captain Richard Scorer Molyneux Harrison
    Gained Certificate on 14 November 1911. A Captain with the 51st Sikhs (Frontier Force), used a Bristol Biplane at Brooklands. Killed in action 16 August 1915 during the Gallipoli campaign.
     
159 Captain Clement Robert Wedgwood Allen, Welch Regiment
    Gained Certificate on 14 November 1911. Used a Bristol Biplane at Brooklands for certificate. Died in an aircraft accident 11 March 1914.
     
160 H. A. Williamson
    Gained Certificate on 28 November 1911.
     
161 Robert Smith-Barry
    Gained Certificate on 28 November 1911.
     
162 George Bentley Dacre
    Gained Certificate on 28 November 1911. RNAS pilot and prisoner of war during World War I, senior RAF commander during World War II.
     
163 Lt. John Graham Bower
    Gained Certificate on 28 November 1911.
     
164 James Arthur Anderson
    Gained Certificate on 28 November 1911.
     
165 Maj. R. L. Benwell
    Gained Certificate on 6 December 1911.
     
166 Capt. Robert Gordon
    Gained Certificate on 6 December 1911.
     
167 James Denys Perceval Chataway
    Gained Certificate on 12 December 1911. Used a Deperdussin Monoplane at the Deperdussin School, Brooklands.
     
168 Charles Ferris Montagu Chambers
    Gained Certificate on 12 December 1911. Used a Valkyrie Monoplane at Hendon.
     
169 Lt. Garthshore Tindal Porter RA
    Gained Certificate on 9 January 1912. (1887-1957) Australian-born. Used a Bristol Biplane at Salisbury Plain. Born in Queensland Colony before joining the British Army. Served in the Royal Garrison Artillery, the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. Died in Cheltenham.
     
170 Lt. Amyas Eden Borton, Black Watch
    Gained Certificate on 9 January 1912. (1886-1969) Used a Bristol Biplane at Salisbury Plain. Served in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. Retired as an Air Vice-Marshal, in 1933.
     
171 Benjamin Graham Wood
    Gained Certificate on 9 January 1912. (1883-1967) An engineer. Used a Hewlett and Blondeau Farman biplane at Brooklands.
     
172 Sydney Vincent Sippe
    Gained Certificate on 9 January 1912. Used an Avro biplane at Brooklands. Flew with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. On 21 November 1914 he attacked the Zeppelin sheds at Lake Constance. Sippe was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1915, he died in 1968.
     
173 Tom Garne
    Gained Certificate on 16 January 1912. Used a Bristol biplane at Brooklands.
     
174 Lt. Napier John Gill
    Napier John Gill was born on 5 April 1890 to Robert Thomas Gill and Clara Augusta (née Boult), in Kensington, London. He was educated at Rugby and the RMA, Woolwich, and commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Artillery, in December 1910. He began flying in a Deperdussin monoplane at Brooklands, and gained his Aviators Certificate in the same aircraft on 16 January 1912.
For a period in 1912, took charge of the Deperdussin School at Brooklands from May until it closed in September that year. He was seconded to the Military Wing of the RFC, passed the pilots course at the newly formed Central Flying School at Upavon on 15 August 1913, and reported for duty with 5 Squadron at Farnborough a few days later. He was appointed Flight Commander and Captain the following year, and in August 1914 was made Wing Adjutant, RFC. From July 1915 Gill served on the Western Front in France and was appointed Brigade Major to Brigadier General Higgins, commanding 3rd Brigade RFC (MC).He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed Assistant Adjutant General RFC. He authored "The Flyer's Guide: An Elementary Handbook for Aviators" in 1916.
Upon the formation of the RAF, he was granted a permanent commission on 1 January 1918. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire, CBE, in the New Year’s Honours List of 1 January 1919 and promoted to Wing Commander on 2 August the same year. Gill briefly commanded 210 Squadron at Gosport in 1921 before being appointed to Command the experimental RAF Station at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, which he held until September 1924. Promoted to Group Captain after serving in Iraq 1925-27, he became closely involved in the preparation which led to Britain's Schneider Trophy success in 1931. Following a number of senior appointments including Air Officer Commanding No. 10 Group, S.A.S.O. H.Q. Coastal Area (promoted to Air Commodore) and A.O.A., H.Q. Fighter Command, for which he was appointed Most Honourable Order of The Bath, CB, on 5 February 1936. He retired from the RAF his own request in 1936.
After leaving the Service he joined the Boulton Paul Aircraft Company as General Manager until 1942, when he became General Manager of Marine Mountings Ltd.
Air Commodore Napier John Gill, CB, CBE, MC died on 20 October 1948; he resided at Marlborough, Wiltshire, but died at Inveroich, Fort Augustus, Inverness.
     
175 Frederick Bernard Fowler
    Gained Certificate on 16 January 1912. Founded the Eastbourne Aviation Company; in 1919, at the rank of Major, he was awarded the AFC . He was also a member of the 1921 Sempill Mission to Japan, for which he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (4th Class)
     
176 Lt. Alan Geoffrey Fox RE
    Gained Certificate on 30 January 1912.
     
177 Lt. Eric Mackay Murray
    Gained Certificate on 30 January 1912. 1886-1954Served in the Royal Flying Corps and was awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order, retired in 1933 as a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force.
     
178 Giovanni Sabelli
    Giovanni Sabelli was born into a wealthy family on 23 September 1886 in Napoli and studied engineering in New York. He learned to fly at Brooklands in 1912 and gained his Aviators Certificate on 30 January 1912 flying a Deperdussin Monoplane. During the First Balkan War, he volunteered to fly combat for the Bulgarians against the Turks, reputed to be one of the organizers of the air effort versus the Ottoman Empire.
Sabelli volunteered for military service when Italy finally entered the First World War, commissioned as a reserve sotto-tenente in the Engineering Corps. Although already a licensed pilot and a combat veteran, he had to pass new flying examinations to fly for his country; he passed both basic and advanced military licenses for Aviatiks in August 1915. After being assigned on 30 August, he flew familiarization flights with the Adriatic Defense Flight before being sent to France to train on Nieuport 11s in mid-October 1915. He returned to Italy to fly combat for a while, being posted on 1 February 1916 to 2a Squadriglia Caccia, without scoring any aerial victories, but winning a Silver Medal for Military Valor. While assigned here, he also served temporary duty as a Nieuport test pilot at Malpensa between 29 May and 2 July 1915. On 9 September 1916, he was promoted to tenente and transferred to command a Nieuport Defence Section (later to become 85a Squadriglia) in Albania. In April 1917, Sabelli rejoined his old unit, now denoted as 71a Squadriglia. He would spend only a few days there; on 9 May 1917, he was assigned to 91a Squadriglia. In company with Michele Allasia, Sabelli he scored his first victory on 10 August 1917, shooting down a Hansa-Brandenburg C.I. By September, he had scored five victories and was awarded another Silver Medal.
On 25 October 1917, he was flying as a wingman to Pier Piccio near the Battle of Caporetto when Piccio attacked an enemy two-seater. Piccio's guns jammed, and Sabelli took his position. An enemy patrol surprised Sabelli from behind and shot him down trailing smoke. Sabelli's body was never found. 
     
179 Frederick Warren Merriam
    See Merriam
     
180 William Bendall
    Gained Certificate on 6 February 1912.
     
181 Eng. Lt. Charles Russell Jekyl Randall
    Gained Certificate on 13 February 1912.
     
182 Capt. Thomas Weeding
    Gained Certificate on 13 February 1912.
     
183 Damer Leslie Allen
    Gained Certificate on 20 February 1912. Disappeared while attempting to cross the Irish Channel from Holyhead on 18 April 1912.
     
184 Sydney Parr
    Gained Certificate on 20 February 1912.
     
185 Lt. Bertram Richard White Beor RFA
    Gained Certificate on 20 February 1912.
     
186 Marcel Desoutter
    See Desoutter
     
187 Lt. Stephen Christopher Winfield-Smith
    Gained Certificate on 27 February 1912.
     
188 Lt. Cecil Thomas Carfrae RFA
    Gained Certificate on 27 February 1912.
     
189 Herbert Dennis Cutler
    Gained Certificate on 5 March 1912.
     
190 Victor Annesley Barrington-Kennett
    Gained Certificate on 5 March 1912. (1887-1916). 2nd Lt in the London Balloon Corps used a Short biplane at Eastchurch. Killed in action flying a Bristol Scout on 13 Mar 1916 in Flanders while serving as a Major and commanding officer of No. 4 Squadron Royal Flying Corps. Three of the four brothers were killed in the Great War (see also Aviator's Certificate No. 43).
     
191 Lt. Clement Gordon Wakefield Head RN
    Gained Certificate on 5 March 1912. -Lt. Cmdr of HM Submarine D2 which was rammed and sunk by German Patrol boat in the North Sea off Borkum Island on 25 November 1914. Memorial on Portsmouth Naval Memorial for Officers killed in 1914 and in Seaford Cemetery.
     
192 Lt. Charles Longcroft
    Gained Certificate on 5 March 1912. RFC pilot, squadron, wing and brigade commander during World War I. First Commandant of the RAF College Cranwell.
     
193 Cyril Wright Meredith
    Gained Certificate on 5 March 1912.
     
194 Capt. Patrick Hamilton
    Gained Certificate on 12 March 1912. Died in a crash in Deperdussin Monoplane 100 Gnome No. 258 at Graveley, near Welwyn, on 6 September 1912. Passenger Lieut. A. Wyness-Stuart (Aviator's Certificate No. 141) was also killed. The accident was considered to have been caused by "a part of the engine coming off and hitting the bonnet over the engine, smashing one of the wing wires, and thus loosening the wings".
     
195 Cecil J. L'Estrange Malone
    Gained Certificate on 12 March 1912. Pioneer naval aviator and Britain's first communist member of the House of Commons
     
196 Major George Hebden Raleigh, Essex Regiment
    Gained Certificate on 12 March 1912. (1878-1915) Australian. Used a Bristol Monoplane at Brooklands, killed in action 21 January 1915 off Belgian Coast, flying a Vickers FB.5 Born in Melbourne and educated at Geelong Grammar School, before joining the British Army and serving in the 2nd Boer War: Queen's South Africa Medal and 8 clasps.
     
197 Ronald Louis Charteris
    Gained Certificate on 12 March 1912. Used a Deperdussin Monoplane at Brooklands, an aeronautical engineer with the All British Engine Company.
     
198 George Prensiell
    Gained Certificate on 19 March 1912. A German engineer, used a Bleriot Monoplane at Hendon.
     
199 William Ewart Hart
    Gained Certificate on 26 March 1912. (1885-1943) An Australian aviator who was the first to qualify in Australia, holding an Australian Aviator's Licence No.1, dated 5 December 1911.
     
200 Capt. Francis John Brodigan
    Gained Certificate on 26 March 1912.

V1.4.4 Created by Roger Moss. Last updated August 2020