How it used to be

[Hagar]

I picked up the latest Shoreham Airport News on a brief visit today. I was pleasantly surprised to find a photo & brief article on my old boss & flying instructor (& hero) the great Cecil Pashley up to his tricks at Shoreham in the 30s. Been searching for something like this for years.



I don't think anyone will object to me posting it as the full leaflet is available online. Download the March Issue here & check it out. http://www.sanews.co.uk/PDF%20files/PDF.htm

He really was a great character & a fine airman. I've mentioned him here before but I always thought it a shame he's not more widely known. He & his brother Eric built their own aircraft in 1910 & gave pleasure flights in it from Worthing beach. It was based on a Maurice Farman design, maybe a Shorthorn.


The Pashley Brothers were among the first people to fly from what is now Shoreham Airport. His brother was unfortunately killed in action in France on March 17th, 1917. During the comparatively short time he was in the R.F.C. he accounted for ten enemy machines and on two occasions rescued photographic machines from superior enemy attacks. "Pash" always said he was the clever one & still missed him terribly all those years afterwards.

"Pash" taught service pilots in both world wars & was the chief instructor at the famous Grahame-White School at Hendon during WWI. He was involved with the Commonwealth Training Scheme & instructing on Harvards in the former Southern Rhodesia in WWII. He also taught aircraft designer F.G Miles (among other famous names) to fly & was in partnership with him for several years during the 1920s.

He was almost 70 years old when I started work at his flying club at Shoreham in 1960 & was still instructing in open cockpits every day in all weathers during the 2 years I was there. I've seen him doing some of those stunts myself with a passenger in the back seat of a Tiger Moth but I'm not sure anyone believed me before now. An amazing man & I am proud to have known him. Even more proud to say that I was "Pash taught". He passed away in 1969 aged 77. They don't make 'em like that any more.

[Craig.]

Great info Doug. And a funny story, thanks for posting Doug, those were the good old days:)

[beaky]

Thanks for sharing. You're very lucky to have had a mentor like that...

[Saratoga]

rotty hit the nail on the head. Instructor's don't come much better than that. Impressive and entertaining story as well. Sounds like a helluva pilot!

[Hagar]

You're very lucky to have had a mentor like that...

Indeed. With hindsight I'm not sure I fully appreciated how lucky. You think things will last for ever when you're young & I wish he was still around now.

Instructor's don't come much better than that. Impressive and entertaining story as well. Sounds like a helluva pilot!

They certainly don't. Without a doubt he was the finest pilot I ever knew & probably the most experienced.

Some of my fondest memories of that time are during the winter months. Every morning when the boss arrived to open up I rode on my old motorbike from the hangar to light the fire in the clubhouse which was on the other side of the airfield. While I was busy doing this, Mr Pashley, I always called him Sir, made us both a cup of coffee. Once the fire was blazing satisfactorily we would sit & chat over our coffee. I let him do most of the talking & he told me many amazing things about the old days. Hearing all this first-hand from the man himself is something not too many people can have experienced. I was surprised to learn that he had always wanted to be an engine driver. We still had steam trains in those days & whenever an express hauled by a steam loco thundered past he would rush outside to watch it.

Here's a photo of Cecil Pashley as a young buck. He was a very small man, no more than 5 feet tall in his flying boots. He might have been short in stature but, as I've said before, this man was a giant to me. I've posted it before but don't know where or when it was taken or how old he was at the time. Possibly when he was instructing at Hendon.

[Saratoga]

Wanted to be an engine driver? Wow, wide variety of profession choices for someone.

[Hagar]

Well, I would hardly call it a wide choice. It was nothing unusual for a young boy to want to be an engine driver, even in my youth. I don't know what they want to be nowadays, probably a space pilot or something like that. They usually grow out of it & end up doing something completely different when they're old enough. My little anecdote just goes to prove that even people you envy can have their own unfulfilled ambitions. That was the point I was trying to make.

[Saratoga]

No I was refering to how he wanted to be an engine driver, but then ended up a very well known pilot in the end. Not that he didn't have a large choice of professions. Sorry if I worded it strange.

[Hagar]

I still think you're missing my point Saratoga. As I said, most boys in those days wanted to be engine drivers but very few followed it up. It would have seemed very romantic to be in charge of one of those big locomotives but it probably wasn't how they imagined. Their choice of a job at the beginning of the last century would have been fairly limited & unless they came from a wealthy family would have involved manual work of some kind or joining the armed services.

I'm not sure about their family background but it would have been very unusual for two brothers to be able to follow their dream & not only build their own aircraft but make a living out of it. I can only assume their parents were reasonably well-off & unusually sympathetic.

[beaky]

They were damned lucky, I think. As for driving a steam loco, I'd imagine there'd be a long apprenticeship shoveling coal... they were smart to "settle" for  aviation!

[ozzy72]

Great story and a great link Doug, nice to hear some more about Pash

[Hagar]

Another little titbit I discovered last night. The Avro 504K on display at RAF Hendon as E449 is Cecil Pashley's personal machine (G-EBJE) when he was in partnership with F.G Miles at Shoreham. http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/avro-504k.htm It had previously been owned by John Cobb, the famous racing driver.

[quote]Pashley himself was to crash the precious Avro G-EATU at the end of July 1926 when he suffered engine failure on take-off, and ended up in a ditch

[Saratoga]

Oh ok Hagar, I catch you. Driving an engine was somethign that I thought would be fun to do at seven or eight, and the pay currently in America anyways, is good, but I eventually it wasn't the optimum career and switched over, soon to discover, aviation!