Alcock and Brown centenary 2019
By Janet Hearn-Gillham
In 1913 Lord Northcliffe, owner of the Daily Mail newspaper, offered
£10,000 to the first pilot(s) who could fly non-stop across the Atlantic in either direction, between North America and the British Isles (including at the time all of Ireland). They were allowed seventy-two hours and had to finish in the same aircraft with which they started.
John Alcock (pilot) and Arthur Whitten Brown (navigator) were the first successfully to take up that challenge on 14/15 June 1919, having met only three months previously.
They made the journey in a modified WW1 Vickers Vimy aircraft designed by Rex Pierson and initially built in the Vickers factory in Crayford.
The flight lasted 161/2 hours, during which they endured horrendous weather conditions – thick cloud, fog, heavy rain, sleet – and all coped within their open cockpit.
They landed at Clifden on the west coast of Ireland; unfortunately what Alcock thought was an open green space was a bog, the soft terrain causing the nose to tip forward.
They walked away unhurt and found they were only twenty miles north of their original planned course after an almost blind flight of 1,900 miles with only four fleeting observations.
It was the longest distance ever flown non-stop by man.
There were many celebrations, including the presentation of the Daily Mail cheque on 20 June at lunch at The Savoy Hotel, London, by Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War. Alcock and Brown were astonished when Churchill announced they were to be knighted, which took place the following day at Windsor Castle.
A month later, Alcock and Brown came to Crayford as surprise guests at the re-opening of The Princesses Theatre. The Theatre had been built by Vickers, opened in March
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Fig 1: Alcock & Brown Atlantic route Feb 2019
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Fig 2: John Alcock
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Fig 3: Arthur Brown
1916 by Princess Christian, but was destroyed by fire later that year. It was re-built, and on 23 July 1919, the Duke of York (later George
VI) came to re-open it. During the evening’s entertainments, a short film was shown about the historic flight. Then Sir Trevor Dawson of Vickers came on stage and introduced Alcock and Brown, who were presented with gold watches.
Once the celebrations were over the pair went their separate ways – Brown to get married, and Alcock to resume his work for Vickers.
Tragically, Alcock died five months later when his aircraft crashed in bad weather en route to Paris.
In January 2017, local Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis chaired a meeting of interested parties, to see if some small celebration could be organised to highlight Crayford’s significant contribution to such a historical event and the visit to Crayford by Alcock and Brown.
The Alcock and Brown Centenary Project Group (Crayford) was formed, and it soon became apparent that there was scope and enthusiasm to make this at major celebration to involve as wide a range of participants as possible in an extensive programme of free events. These included an exhibition at Hall Place, Bexley, opened by Tony Alcock, nephew of Sir John Alcock (with items loaned by Brooklands Museum), talks, an exhibition at the Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre in Crayford, a celebration day at Hall Place and Gardens attended by c.3500 people, and so on.
The retail park in the centre of Crayford stands on the site of the Vickers factory, some architectural aspects of the current buildings echoing the previous structures.
Permissions were granted to fix artwork recalling Alcock and Brown within the eleven arches on the McDonald’s building.
Eleven schools and community groups produced the designs which were turned into tiles by the Learning and Enterprise Centre.
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Fig 4: Alcock and Brown’s transatlantic Vimy being reconstructed in a field in St John’s, Newfoundland prior to their crossing attempt
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Fig 5: Cockpit of Vimy
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Fig 6: Up & away
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Fig 7: Alcock & Brown Harry Couch and team refuelling 1919
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Fig 8: Landing in Ireland
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Fig 9: 1921 aerial view of Vickers factory Crayford
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Fig 10: Duke of Kent sat between life- size models of Alcock & Brown
The main event, of course, was on 23rd July 2019, a beautifully sunny day, when the Duke of Kent visited Crayford to view the artwork and to unveil the splendid new bench with life-size models of Alcock and Brown at each end. After meeting many people in Crayford, the Royal party moved to Hall Place for a reception. The Duke then planted a tree in the grounds and attended a private lunch in the Great Chamber.
A successful application was made to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the London Borough of Bexley provided considerable support, and private donations were gratefully received, particularly a generous donation from Erith Group which funded the bench. Various museums lent their support in different ways, and members of the Alcock family were a great help. The Group were relieved and delighted that the Project turned out to be such a huge success, and have so many people to thank for being involved in so many ways, great and small, many more than I have been able to mention here.
On a personal note, I was amazed to discover that Harry Couch, a rigger and one of the Vickers Weybridge team who travelled to Newfoundland to re-assemble the Vimy (see Fig 7), was my mother’s great uncle! Why had no-one in the family ever mentioned that? I have since been able to trace Harry’s grandson, and we have now met a couple of times. It seems that Harry didn’t talk about it much either, so I’ve been able to give his grandson more information.
Further details and many images can be found in the two booklets produced, both of which are on www.crayfordhistory.org.uk.
The Vimy itself can be seen at the Science Museum in London; a replica built in 1994 (flown by Steve Fossett, Clive Edwards et al.) can be seen at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge.
Recommended reading: Lynch, B. (2009), Yesterday We Were In America: Alcock and Brown, First to Fly the Atlantic
Non-Stop (J H Haynes & Co.Ltd)