Francis McClean

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DL
Lt-Col. Frank McClean in 1919
Born
Francis Kennedy McClean

(1876-02-01)1 February 1876
Westminster, London
Died11 August 1955(1955-08-11) (aged 79)
London
NationalityBritish
OccupationCivil engineer
Known forPioneer aviator

aviator.[1]

Sir Francis was one of the founding members of the Royal Aero Club and one of the founders of naval aviation and amateur flying.[1]

Early life

McClean was born on 1 February 1876, the son of astronomer Frank McClean, and was educated at Charterhouse before the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill.[1] His grandfather John Robinson McClean, also a civil engineer, came from Belfast. McClean worked as a civil engineer in the Indian Public Works Department from 1898 to 1902 when he left to focus on aviation matters.[1]

Interest in astronomy

Through his father's influence, McClean was an enthusiastic amateur astronomer and especially interested in solar eclipses. He was a volunteer assistant on the

Lockyer Observatory.[3]

Aviator

Frank McClean, caricatured 1909

His first flying experience was in 1907 in a balloon race in Berlin, and in December 1908 he flew with

Royal Naval Air Station Eastchurch on 20 September 1910.[4] Between 1909 and 1914 he owned sixteen different aircraft, all but one built by Short Brothers.[5]

In February 1911, he offered to let both the

naval aviators.[1]

McClean was also a pioneer in aerial photography: with the help of Hugh Spottiswoode he took some acclaimed photographs of the wreck of the SS Oceana[6] just off the coast at Eastbourne.[1] In August 1912, he flew a floatplane between the upper and lower parts of Tower Bridge and underneath London Bridge.[1]

In 1914, he made a flight following the course of the

First World War in August he was commissioned in the Royal Naval Air Service and carried out patrols in the English Channel before becoming chief instructor at Eastchurch. He transferred to the Royal Air Force when it was formed in 1918 but resigned his commission in 1919. McLean was a founder member of the Aero Club of Great Britain (later the Royal Aero Club) and was Chairman in 1923-24 and again from 1941 to 1944.[1]

McClean served as High Sheriff of Oxfordshire for 1932/33.

Family and later life

McClean married Aileen Wale in 1918 and they had two daughters.[1] Their elder daughter, Frances, married Sir Arthur Eliott of Stobs, 11th Bt, and their younger daughter, Iona, married Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington.[7] In 1932, Sir Francis was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire.

He died on 11 August 1955 in London after a long illness.[1] His name is listed on a memorial on the Isle of Sheppey commemorating thirteen pioneer aviators.[1] The family of Sir Francis McClean have loaned his papers to the Fleet Air Arm Museum.[7]

Insignia of a Knight Bachelor

Honours and awards

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Sir Francis McClean Pioneer Aviator". Obituaries. The Times. No. 53297. London. 12 August 1955. col C, p. 11.
  2. doi:10.1038/077104a0
    .
  3. doi:10.1093/mnras/116.2.152
    .
  4. ^ Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate No. 21
  5. ^ Barnes, C.H., Shorts Aircraft Since 1900 London: Putnam 1967, p.498.
  6. ^ "Havering Scuba Divers » Oceana SS". Archived from the original on 10 July 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2013. SS Oceana sank on 16 March 1912 in collision with the Pisagua, which was towed into Dover.
  7. ^ a b In Memoriam: Sir Francis McClean from earlyaviators.com
  8. ^ "No. 33179". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 July 1926. p. 7376.
  9. ^ www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

Further reading

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