EXCITING CAREER

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 46, 18 November 1936, Page 17

EXCITING CAREER

Palmerston North Man Who Flew in Box Kite EARLY AERONAUTICAL EXPERIMENTS Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, November 17. Following the unexciting occupation of a bookseller at Palmerston North is a man whose adventurous career from boyhood to the conclusion of the Great War would make an exciting book. As a boy he flew iu man-carrying box kites, was trainee in a balloon school, passenger in the first heavier-than-air flying-machine to be officially tested in England, Great War cavalryman, observer in a balloon section, aerial gunner and observer with artillery. He fought on as wide a battlefront as comparatively few soldiers were destined to see, was wounded in seven different engagements, including while acting as an aerial gunner, aud has 30 wound marks in his body. Above all, he is modest enough about his exploits to make it hard to coax any more than a rough outline of them from rather unwilling lips. Mr. Frederick Carpenter is this adventurer. It took a discussion in fencing to warm him up to a sketchy account of this episode—three English cavalrymen contacting with three Uhlans in the dusk, the former with drawn cavalry swords, the Germans with lances, the horses, cheek to cheek, whinnying the friendly greeting of one horse to another while their riders fought and slashed for life. Then from a lance pierce in the upper part of his sword arm Mr. Carpenter lost his first blood in the Great War. In 1905 Mr. Carpenter had his first experience of flight. This was with tiie man-carrying box kites of the aeronautical pioneer, the Irish-American, Colonel S. F. Cody at Farnborough, England, where Mr. Carpenter’s early life was spent. These kites carried an observer jii*a basket beneath and be travelled in one of these. This was not the first of the man-carrying kites, because Captain Baden Powell (now Lord Baden Powell) built one a short time before which took him 160 feet up. In 1905 Colonel Cody went to 1600 feet and the same year a Royal Engineers sapper ascended to 2000 feet. This record was never beaten, mainly because attention was then being diverted t® the machine-driven craft. Empress Eugenio. As special telegraph messenger from Farnborough Post Office to the Empress' Eugenie, wife of the last French Emperor (Napoleon III) he came Into contact early with people around whom there still remained au atmosphere of adventure. She was then living at Farnborough Hill and was visited by the Klug of Spain. Air. Carpenter has a 1907 certificate of character from the Farnborough Post Office. Air. Carpenter witnessed early attempts to control the direction of balloons by tlie attachment of smaller balloons to the main bag. He was present at the first flight of the first British airship, the Null! Secundus, which got its motive power from propellers driven on shafts from a Green motor. He acted as telegraph messenger to the special correspondent of a

London paper. As soon as the Null! Secundus poked her uose out ot the shed this keeu newspaperman sent a message away to the effect that she had made a flight. This was at 3.30 p.m. Actually she did not take the air until 5 p.m., some time after the London evening paper which this correspondent represented was actually circulated at the flying ground with a report of the flight in it. Several days later the Null! Secundus was llown to the Crvstal Palace, Loudon, by Colonel S. F. Cody and made fast. During the night a gale sprang up and to avoid the ship being blown away sentvies r iyl } bayonets through the bag. The Nulli Secundus was railed back to Farnborough and never flown again. Mr. Carpenter was then a boy .scout. Ho was taking a short, cut from a scout meeting across the training ground at Farnborough one summer’s evening when be came upon a handful of officials gathered around a weird-look-ing bamboo-framed contraption with canvas wings and hold together with plenty of wire. Colonel Cody was seated at the controls. With a terrifle noise and a shiver like St. Vitus’s dance the machine cleared some gorse, left the ground for a 100 yards or so, and then, with a terrific bang, landed again. Colonel Cody did not gnash his teeth at the apparent failure. Instead he climbed down from his seat, threw his hat in the air and jumped for joy at his small measure of success. It was the first official test of a heavler-than-air flying machine in England and Is officially recorded as such. Colonel Cody then shifted headquarters to Laffan Plains. There Air. Carpenter helped him in odd jobs, aud then, in 1909, took his first aeroplane flight with Colonel Cody, other flights following. Trainee at Balloon School. In 1909 Mr. Carpenter joined the Cleveland Engineering Co., which helped to build the airship .sheds at Farnborough. He still has the oflicial pass permitting his entry on the job. Next year a balloon school was formed and he entered as a boy trainee. Air ViceMarshal Sir Hugh Trenehard was then a major at the school, which was commanded by Alajor Sir Alexander Bannerman, Bt. The officers at this school became the leaders of the first air squadrons. As a trainee Mr. Carpenter’s work consisted in assisting iu the letting up and hauling down of balloons for observation training purposes. He participated in the 1911 army manoeuvres, the first in which aeroplanes were included. In these manoeuvres a Captain Fultou actually landed a machine upside down without injury to himself aud little damage to the craft. While Air. Carpenter was at the school the “Aloruing Post.” Loudon, presented the British Government with the French airship, “le Baudy,” which was to take its place among the other pioneers like the Beta, Gamma, Clement-Bayard, Delta, and others. These airships were successfully used in the early stages of ■ the war as escorts for troopships across the Channel. The “Alorning Post’s” gift had a sad and early end. Flown over from France it had sagged in the middle by the time it arrived. When it was being dragged into the shed one end went up iu the air and the bag was ripped clean through. The French authorities tried to patch it up with the aid of thousands of patches made in the fabric by needlewomen, but it was never flown again. While at the balloon school Air. Carpenter saw the first DH machine demonstrated by Air. Geoffrey de Havilland. He saw him lift the undercarriage clean off In a landing, and come to rest flat on the wings without any harm to himself. This was. early in 1969. He also saw Sefton Brancker make early flights. Cavalry Scout. Witnessing many fatal accidents in the early stages of flying put Air. Carpenter off this branch of military service, and iu 1911 he transferred to the Nineteenth Hussars (cavalry). He went overseas with, them at the outbreak of the Great War, being one of the Old Contemptible band, and about August 16, 1914, as a cavalry scout, was one ot lhe first British troops to sight German cavalry. He was one of the first six to pass through Armentieres on the advance and was standing underneath the Cloth Hall at Ypres just before the first shell struck the town. He fought throughout the war and was wounded 36 times in seven engagements on a battlefront ranging from Langmarke (to the right of Dunkirk), to various points at Ypres, Plugstreet, Armentieres, Arras, and the Somme. In one direction he fought In territory as far as any British troops went.

In 191.7 Mr. Carpenter transferred to the Air Force as a gunner, aud was shot down. He went back to bis youthful fancy—balloons—for observation work ami then to ail artillery battery for observation purposes. He attained the rank of lieutenant. He prefers not to speak for publication of his war experiences, because he feels there are many others who went through equally oxciting episodes. However, the variety and extent of the front and the engagements he fought in, his wounds, his varied service and long association with things military stamp him as a man who had adventures which fall to the lot of few men.

One of his brothers, as a member of the navy air arm, was shot down in England only a few miles from his own home. He survives to-day with a silver plate in bls head. Mr. Carpenter’s father and bis other brother were killed while serving with the Somerset Light Infantry, the latter on the first day of the battle of the Somme. Today, when he Is not busy with his books. Mr. Carpenter recaptures some of the spirit, of adventurous days by association with Palmerston North flying activities aud with the Imperial ex-servicemen's organisation.