British Tokens, Tickets and Passes, Wiltshire Coins and Paranumismatica

Miscellaneous Tokens and Checks, Larkhill, Military Aeroplane Competition, 1912, Official Pass, uniface card, named (The Hon. L.J. Fiennes), signed F.H.S. [F.H. Sykes], 45mm. Very fine and very rare £100-£150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Wiltshire Coins, Tokens and Paranumismatica formed by the late David Ward.

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Group-Captain the Honourable Laurence John Evelyn Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (1890-1962), b. Marylebone, London, third son of Geoffrey Cecil Twisleton-Wykeham Fiennes, 18th Baron Saye (1858-1937); 9th Bn Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire LI, then Lt, 4th Bn; appointed Flying Officer, 26 June 1915; with 101 Squadron, RFC, August 1917; Squadron-Leader, RAF, Bir Salem, Palestine, 1922; placed on the retired list 1931; Air Attaché Washington, 1930-3, architect. An original commission warrant appertaining to him, dated 2 August 1919, was sold in these rooms in March 2007.

Air Vice-Marshal Sir Frederick Hugh Sykes, GCSI, GCIE, GBE, KCB, CMG (1877-1954); b. Addiscombe, Surrey; worked on a tea plantation in Ceylon; trooper, Imperial Yeomanry Scouts, 1899; captured by Boers and endured a forced march before freedom; commissioned into Lord Roberts’ personal bodyguard but suffered a serious chest wound and invalided back to England; 2nd Lt, 15th Hussars, October 1901, posted to West African Regt, later attached to the Balloon Section of the RE; joined Intelligence Staff at Simla, 1905; Staff College, Quetta, October 1908, and promoted to Captain; learnt to fly at Brooklands in 1910 and awarded Royal Aero Club certificate no.96; Officer Commanding the military wing of the RFC, May 1912, later Commandant; approved the phrase Per Ardua ad Astra, adopted by the RAF as its motto; Chief of Staff of the RFC, 5 August 1914, and temporarily commander, November-December 1914; Officer Commanding the RNAS Eastern Mediterranean July 1915 and air commander for the Dardanelles campaign; Assistant Adjutant-General at the War Office, June 1916, later Deputy Adjutant and QMG; Chief of Air Staff, April 1918; Air Vice Marshal August 1919 and controller of civil aviation 1919-22; Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam 1922-8; Governor of Bombay October 1928-November 1933, then returned to Britain; MP for Nottingham Central 1940-5; lived at Conock Manor, Devizes, and latterly in Marylebone, London. Although Sykes enjoyed a distinguished career in the early days of British military aviation, his character did not appeal to either Lord Kitchener or Winston Churchill and he was temporarily demoted, in 1914 and 1919, on the orders of both men. Sykes married Isabel Law (1895-1969), elder daughter of the prime minister Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923), in 1920.

By 1911 it was clear that the development of aircraft had reached the point where they were of military significance. France, then the world’s leader in aviation, had over 200 aircraft in military service. In contrast, Britain’s total military aircraft strength was 19, of which, in the words of the then Under-Secretary of State for War, “one is broken beyond repair and one is quite out of date.” So, on behalf of the Air Battalion, Royal Engineers, the War Office convened to conduct a review of military flying in December 1911 and announced that a military aircraft trial would take place during 1912. The aim was to determine what aircraft would best suit the needs of the Army, and a prize of £4,000 was on offer to the manufacturer of the winning machine. By the time the trials were held, at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain in August 1912, the Air Battalion had become the military wing of the newly-established Royal Flying Corps (RFC).

The trials were to be very exacting to the point of being unrealistic, considering the rudimentary character of early aeroplanes. Testing the aircraft’s performance in a number of competences, the War Office reserved the right to then purchase any machine for £1,000. The tests would include an aircraft’s ability to carry a load of 350lbs for 4½ hours, attain a speed of 55mph, take off from long grass, clover or harrowed land in 100 yards without damage and climb to 1,000 feet at a rate of at least 200 feet per minute, and finally land on rough ground, including ploughed land and stopping within 75 yards.

A total of 32 aircraft were entered, although only 24 participated in the competition. Flying began on 2 August 1912 and continued for three weeks. The surprise winner was Samuel Cody’s biplane, popularly known as the ‘flying cathedral’ due to its size. It was an outdated design even in 1912, but managed to meet all the test criteria largely due to its very powerful 20hp Austro-Daimler 6-cylinder engine. The RFC felt compelled to purchase the machine, and took delivery of its first aircraft in November 1912; a second aircraft was delivered in February 1913. In April of that year, after some modifications, the first aircraft broke up at 500 feet and crashed to the ground at Farnborough, killing its pilot. The second aircraft was at this time undergoing repair following an accident in March; it was withdrawn from service and presented to the Science Museum in November 1913, having only flown for 2½ hours.

The most successful aircraft to fly at the competition was the Royal Aircraft Factory’s BE 2, designed by Geoffrey de Havilland. Although it participated in all the trials it was unable to compete because of a conflict of interest, as the Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory, Meryyn O’Gorman, was one of the judges. The BE 2 however was eventually ordered in large numbers by the RFC and saw operational service during the early part of the First World War, as well as continuing to be used as a training aircraft throughout the conflict. Sold with further detail and a newspaper cutting celebrating the centenary of the event, featuring an image of Samuel Cody