FAMOUS AIRMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 236, 6 October 1930, Page 7

FAMOUS AIRMEN.

VICTIMS OP DISASTER.

Many Distinguished Careers

Cut Short.

SERVICES TO AVIATION.

The disaster of the ElOl will remove from British aviation some of its most outstanding personalities, rendering a heavy blow at the same time to the development of the airship as a commercial and Empire means of communication. Diplomat, politician, soldier and airman, Lord Thomson, Minister of State for Air, has had a brilliant and varied career. Educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military College, Woolwich, he entered the Army in 1894. He fought in the Mashonaland campaign and the South African War, being promoted brevet-major for his services. In 1902 he was appointed instructor at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham. After a term in West Africa in 1906-07 he passed through the Staff College in 1910-11 and held a post in the War Office from 1911 to 19,14, during which period he witnessed the Balkan wars as representative. of the British Army. When the world war broke out he was gazetted to the general staff in France, but in 1915 was appointed military attache and chief of the military mission in Rumania. In 1917 he was sent to Palestine, while in 1918-19 he served on the Supreme Wf.r Council, after which he retired with the honorary rank of brigadier-general. When the Labour party came into power in 1924 Mr. Thomson, who was a member of the party, was raised to the peerage by Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald and appointed Secretary of State for Air. He became an enthusiast on the subject and set himself to master- the technicalities of aviation. In 1927 he published a book, "Air Facts and Problems." He was against Atlantic flights, which he considered to be of no value to aviation. Lord Thomson was a staunch advocate of Air Force development. He painted a picture in his book of the dreadful horrors of the air wars of the future and argued that in the air strength of the Powers lay the greatest security for peace as the consequences could be so drastic that no country would dare to instigate hostilities. Advocate of Empire Air Link, Air-Vice-Marshal Sir William Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation since 1922, was born in 1877. In 1896 he entered the Royal Artillery, serving in the South African War, when he was wounded and mentioned in dispatches. He was then appointed to a staff position in India, and had his first flying experience in the winter of 1910, when he flew as a military observer in India. He was appointed to the War Office in 1913, and on the outbreak of the Great War became permanently associated with military • aviation, as Director of Air Organisation. In 1919 he retired from the Royal Air Force, in which he had held the rank cf major-general, in order to deVote himself to the development of commercial .viation. Sir Sefton Brancker was convinced that aviation offered an Empire link at a time when the need was most vital for closer communication between the Motherland and the large Dominions. He was a man inspired 'by this ideal, and he refused to be discouraged by any setbacks. His recent air survey across the Empire from London to Rangoon, and back, with Sir* Alan Cobham, made him deservedly famous. ■ 1 Major G. H. Scott, who was in command of the expedition being made by the RlOl to India, and who was the first to be in charge of a dirigible on a flight across ,the Atlantic and back, .ntended to become an engineer in the Navy. After passing through the Key ham Naval Engineering College, however, he abandoned the idea and took up civilian work. Soon afterwards the world war began. He volunteered for service, and, obtaining a commission in the Royal Naval Air Service, was placed in the airships branch. His work there was necessarily of a secret kind and is not on record. It was recognised by the award of the Air Force Cross and the C.B.E. Major Scott soon after the war was chosen to command the R34, an airship of the Zeppelin type, for the first airship flight across the Atlantic. With six officers and 20 men of the Royal Air Force and three passengers on board he started on July 3, 1919. The outward voyage was made in 108 hours and the return voyage in 72 hours. When the RIOO was ready for flying some years later Major Scott took her out on long trial flights, which won him complimentary messages from Air-Chief-Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard and other experts. 11100 was completed in May of this year, and under the command of Major Scottcarried out successful trials, and made a flight to Canada and back. Former Aucklanfler. Lieutenant-Commander W. H. Watt, R.N.R. (retired), a native of Forfar, Scotland, was in New Zealand at the outbreak of the late war. He returned to Britain and after serving in destroyers was transferred to the airship branch of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916. He flew in non-rigid airships from various East Coast stations until 1918, when, as a major in the Royal Air Force, he commanded the large rigid airship R26. He was also responsible for • carrying out experiments in the mooring of airships at Pulham and for a time represented the airships section on the staff of the admiral commanding ithe East of England. In 1920, for health reasons, he left the service and returned to New Zealand, where he took up commercial pursuits in Auckland, eventually establishing an indent business in Shortland Street.

As the Imperial airship scheme developed the Air Ministry found itself in need of experienced pilots and sought out, among others, Lieutenant-Com-mander Watt. He answered the call and left for England earl/ m 1928. After 12 months' training at the Royal Airship Works, Cardington, Bedfordshire, _ he specialised in the operating of mooringtowers and other devices for the handling of airships on the ground. Lieutenant-Commander Watt was married on July 21 at Goldington, near Bedford, to Miss Frances Hall, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs. J. D. R. Hall, of Bedford. The news that Lieutenant-Commander Watt was on board RlOl comes as a surprise and a shock to his friends here, who: believed him to be at Karachi. He was to have sailed with his bride on August 8 for India, in order to assume command of the, ai)-ship base at Karachi.

A letter written by him from a P. and 0. liner in tlie Mediterranean off the island of Stromboli on August 17,- was received in Auckland recently. In this he stated that after reaching Karachi lie expected to have a very busy time preparing for the arrival of the 8.101. It can only be supposed that the Air Ministry changed its plans and recalled him to England in order that he might take part in the flight.

Auckland has yet another link with the disaster in the death of SquadronLeader W. H. L. O'Neill, who was a passenger on the ill-fated airship, representing the Secretary of State for India. Squadron-Leader O'Neill had many friends and relatives in Auckland, having visited this city some years ago in connection with property interests. He is a son of Captain Heremon O'Neill and a grandson of the late Hon. Jas. O'Neill, a former member of the Legislative Council of New Zealand and an early director of the Bank of New Zealand. Squadron-Leader O'Neill served for several years in the Army in India and held the rank of lieutenant. He was on his way back to India in the airship.