Barnes

History

George Arthur Barnes was born on 19 July 1883, Hoxton, London, in the Admiral Keppel, one of his father’s many pubs in and around London. Starting cycle racing competitively in 1901, the progression to motorcycling was natural and by the end of 1903 he was purely a motorcycle racer. In early 1903 George gained employment as a professional rider for the BAT motorcycle manufacturing company. Between 1904 and 1905 in partnership with George Wilton he manufactured and sold motorcycles trading as George A. Barnes and Co.; the partnership was dissolved on 17 August 1905.

In September 1909 it was announced in the Daily Mail that he would attempt to win the £1000 prize for the first British machine to fly over a circular mile piloted by a British aviator. On 11 October 1909 the Barnes monoplane succeeded on in flying for a distance of well over a mile and a half, very nearly completing a circle, at Abbey Wood, near Woolwich. Barnes kept the machine fairly close to the ground, and this probably accounted for the incident that brought this trial flight to a conclusion when a gust of wind caused his crashing into a ditch.

In May 1910 he joined the staff of Humber Motor Company Ltd. as a pilot and gained his RAeC Aviators Certificate, No. 16 on 21 June that year. Over the next couple of years was busy flying demonstration and exhibition flights for Humber all over the country. At the Folkestone International Air Meeting on 28 September 1910 he suffered a serious accident, leaping from his aircraft from an altitude of 30 feet and suffering a fractured skull and broken left wrist.

Barnes died of pneumonia on 1 February 1919 at Paddington, London.

Company References

1. Flight 16 Oct 1909
2. Flight 28 May 1910
3. Flight 1 Oct 1910
4. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/George_Arthur_Barnes
5. https://sketchbooktravels.com/banked-track-heroes/2021/11/4/george-barnes-the-english-cannonball