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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1675.PDF
256 FLIGHT THE FIRST OFFICIAL AIR-MAIL Some Personal Recollections o By HARRY HARPER OFTEN in these modern times, when I receive a letterby air from Australia in a matter of days, my thoughtsgo back to a couple of history-making summer after- noons. On one of them—it was in August, 1910—I happened to be sitting in a shed on the Squire's Gate flying-ground at Blackpool (yes, it was an airfield even then !). In front of me was a little aluminium portable typewriter—one of the first of its kind—on which I was tapping out a letter to my wife. Outside, on the aerodrome, stood a B16riot monoplane. Quickly I finished my letter, and after sealing it I ran across to the monoplane, beside which stood that well-known air transport pioneer, G. Holt Thomas, and that equally well- known pioneer pilot, Claude Grahame-White. That letter of mine, with others and a lot of postcards, went into a bag which was stowed away in the cockpit. After which "G.W." took his place at the controls and, in spite of a gusty and troublesome wind, flew with the bag for seven miles across country, alighting at a spot not far from Southport. Here the load passed into the hands of waiting postal officials, and its contents went on to their destinations through ordinary surface channels, each piece of postal matter bearing an inscription in red to testify that it had actually been airborne. Although that Blackpool test was quite unofficial, it had the distinction of being the first of its kind in this country. It also served the purpose which its organizer, Mr. Holt Thomas, had in mind, and this was to illustrate the then just-dawning possibilities of the aeroplane as a carrier of mails. Actually it did something more, for it paved the way for those now-famous officially sponsored trials organized in September of the following year, 1911, which were flown over a 20-mile route between the London Aerodrome at Hendon and Windsor Great Park. Held in connection with the celebrations attending the Coronation of King George V., this experiment, (during Ladies in the big picture-hats of the period post letters at Hendon for dispatch by the first British officially-sanctioned air-mail, between Hendon and Windsor, September, 1911. istoric Experiment of Forty Years Ago ^kxr^SLJT , ha: ;hich more than 100,000 letters and cards'were carried) "" — ^een t^ie subject of a number of articles references~lh books. Duails of the flights axe, l'6i example, well-known to all who are interested in the collection of historical air-mail matter. So far as I am concerned, it was my privilege to be on the spot at the time, and to watch and describe the inaugural and concluding flights. And as we now near the fortieth anni- versary of these historic proceedings, it seems appropriate to indulge in a few personal recollections, the more so as the organizer of the whole affair, the late Sir Walter Windham, was an early air friend of mine. It was he who managed to interest the then Postmaster General, Sir Herbert Samuel, to such an extent that official Post Office sanction and co-operation was accorded to the Gustav Hamel in the cockpit of the Bleriot monoplane in which he inaugurated the mail flights by carrying from Hendon to Windsor a letter addressed to King George V. trials—the first time it had ever been given in connection with any such aeronautical experiment. One of my recollections of this aerial milestone is of visiting some of the big London stores, just before the actual flights, and of seeing in each of them the novel sight of a bright red air-mail pillar-box. These boxes, of course3 were the first of their kind to appear in the metropolis. In them, members of the public posted specially issued letters and postcards, each of which carried a coloured pictorial design showing an aeroplane flying over Windsor Castle, and bearing the words "First United Kingdom Aerial Post." All these letters and cards had already been franked for in- land postage with id. stamps for the letters and id. stamps for the cards, while the special additional air transport fee was is. id. for letters and 6£d. for the cards. These pillar-boxes were to be found in prominent posi- tions in nine of London's principal stores, including HarrodSj Whiteleys, Selfridges, and Gamages, and I can recall an official at the last-named establishment telling me that before the first flights from Hendon they had already sold approximately 25,000 letters and cards. There were mere of the boxes out on the aerodrome at Hendon. Collections from the London boxes were made at regular intervals by Post Office vans, and the letters and cards were
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