John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
---|---|
In office 27 April 1942 – 17 May 1964 Hereditary peerage | |
Preceded by | Peerage created |
Succeeded by | The 2nd Baron Brabazon of Tara |
Member of Parliament for Wallasey | |
In office 27 October 1931 – 27 April 1942 | |
Preceded by | Robert Burton-Chadwick |
Succeeded by | George Reakes |
Member of Parliament for Chatham | |
In office 14 December 1918 – 10 May 1929 | |
Preceded by | Gerald Hohler |
Succeeded by | Frank Markham |
Personal details | |
Born | Knight of the Legion of Honour (France) | 8 February 1884
Early life
Moore-Brabazon was born in London to Lieutenant Colonel John Arthur Henry Moore-Brabazon (1828–1908) and his wife, Emma Sophia née Richards (died 1937). He was educated at Harrow School before reading engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge, but did not graduate. He spent university holidays working for Charles Rolls as an unpaid mechanic, and became an apprentice at Darracq in Paris after leaving Cambridge. In 1907 he won the Circuit des Ardennes in a Minerva.
Pioneer aviator
Moore-Brabazon first flew solo in November 1908 in France in a
On 30 October 1909, flying the
On 8 March 1910, Moore-Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1;[3] his car also bore the number-plate FLY 1. However, only four months later, his friend Charles Rolls was killed in a flying accident and Moore-Brabazon's wife persuaded him to give up flying.
First World War
With the outbreak of war, Moore-Brabazon returned to flying, joining the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He received a special-reserve commission as a second lieutenant (on probation) in the RFC on 2 December 1914, in the appointment of flying officer (assistant equipment officer), and was confirmed in his rank on 11 February 1915.[4][5] [6] He was promoted to lieutenant on 19 February 1915 and was appointed an equipment officer on 31 March, with the temporary rank of captain.[7][8] On 1 September 1915, he was promoted to the substantive rank of captain, with a special temporary promotion to major on 18 May 1916.[9][10]
He served on the
Moore-Brabazon finished the war with the rank of
Pioneer yachtsman
In 1934 Moore-Brabazon fitted a gyro-rig to a Bembridge Redwing, an Isle of Wight class of yacht that allows and encourages the development of different rigs. The area of the rotating blades complies with the sail area limits of the class and are painted red, also to comply with the class rules.[17] The boat was, and remains, dangerous, but it was probably the first auto-gyro boat.[18] The boat is currently in the collection of the Classic Boat Museum at East Cowes, Isle of Wight, and still 'sails'.
Conservative MP
Moore-Brabazon later became a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Chatham (1918–1929) and Wallasey (1931–1942) and served as a junior minister in the 1920s. In 1931 and 1932 he served as a member of the London County Council. He was strongly opposed to war with Nazi Germany and in early 1939, when war seemed imminent, he made contact with Oswald Mosley in an attempt to co-ordinate activity against the war.[19]
Despite his earlier anti-war agitation, in
Later life
Moore-Brabazon was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Brabazon of Tara, of Sandwich in the County of Kent, in April 1942.[20] In 1943 he chaired the Brabazon Committee which planned to develop the post-war British aircraft industry. He was involved in the production of the Bristol Brabazon, a giant airliner that first flew on 4 September 1949. It was then and still is the largest aeroplane built entirely in Britain although only one example was built and it was a very expensive failure Britain could not afford.
In 1949, when the House of Lords Yacht Club was established, Brabazon was its first Commodore.[21]
A keen golfer, Moore-Brabazon was captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the governing body of golf, from 1952 to 1953.[citation needed]
In 1955, then 71 years old, he won the Cresta Run Coronation Cup at an average speed of 71 km/h (44 mph).[22]
Moore-Brabazon was president of the
On 27 November 1906, he married Hilda Mary Krabbé, with whom he had two sons. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Derek.
Moore-Brabazon is buried in Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens, Buckinghamshire.[25]
References
- ^ "A Dream of Flight". Archived from the original on 7 December 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-18583-1.
- ^ Flight 12 March 1910
- ^ "No. 28998". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 December 1914. p. 10416.
- ^ "No. 29048". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 January 1915. p. 782.
- ^ "No. 29044". The London Gazette. 19 January 1915. p. 610.
- ^ "No. 29103". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 March 1915. p. 2712.
- ^ "No. 29134". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 April 1915. p. 3806.
- ^ "No. 29322". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 October 1915. p. 10011.
- ^ "No. 29585". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 May 1916. p. 4943.
- ^ "No. 30607". The London Gazette. 2 April 1918. p. 4030.
- ^ "No. 31098". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1918. p. 95.
- ^ "No. 29944". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 February 1917. p. 1596.
- ^ "No. 29422". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1915. p. 12.
- ^ "No. 29890". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 January 1917. p. 205.
- ^ "No. 29486". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 February 1916. p. 2067.
- ^ "Classic Boat Museum". Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ "Autogiro Boats – History 1870–1933". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
- Martin Pugh, Hurrah for the Blackshirts! Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars, Pimlico, 2006, p. 279
- ^ "No. 35541". The London Gazette. 28 April 1942. p. 1859.
- ^ Shipbuilding and Shipping Record, vol. 73 (1949), p. 38
- ^ Lord Brabazon with the skeleton
- ^ "No. 39732". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1952. p. 10.
- ^ "The Woman Engineer". www2.theiet.org. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
- ^ The Aeronautical Journal
- Rose, Kenneth (2004). "Brabazon, John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-, first Baron Brabazon of Tara (1884–1964)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32018. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Moore-Brabazon
- Portraits of John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara (1884–1964) at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Film trailer of A Dream of Flight Archived 7 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine a documentary that celebrates the centenary of the first powered flight by a Briton in Britain, JTC Moore Brabazon, in 1909 on The Isle of Sheppey.
- Photograph by Cecil Beaton, 1940
- Portrait in Pastels by Alfred Egerton Cooper, 1958
- "Kestrel" Brabazon's Autogyro yacht at Classic Boat Museum
- Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. – via Wikisource. . . Dublin:
- Papers held by the Royal Air Force Museum London Archive and Library.