WALTER GEORGE RAYMOND HINCHLIFFE. AVIATOR

W.G.R. Hinchliffe / Joan Humphreys, nee Hinchliffe

Published by Privately published, Melbourne, Australia, 1969

About this Item

Foolscap size (333 x 200mm); v, 380, xxx pages (printed on rectos only, from typescript); original plain grey cloth, with W.G.R. Hinchliffe stamped in gilt on front; a little marked, rubbed, and bumped on corners, but otherwise a very good copy. This is copy no. 48 of an unspecified limited edition, signed by Joan Humphreys, with a dedication to the United Services Club, and with their armorial bookplate on front paste-down. A note on this bookplate states that the copy was purchased by Maggs Bros. when the club left their premises at the bottom of the Haymarket. This is the very rare privately published complete log-books of Walter Hinchliffe, edited by his daughter. Captain Hinchliffe (1893-1928) was a famous airman who served in the Royal Naval Air Service, and then the very early RAF, with a total of 7 enemy aircraft shot down. He was shot down himself, suffering severe facial injuries, and losing the sight of one eye over which he famously wore a patch for the rest of his life. After the war, he became a pilot working for both KLM and Imperial Airways. In 1920 he made the first airmail flight from the Netherlands to England, an in 1921 he made the first civilian passenger flights from Lympne to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Berlin. He pioneered many other routes as well. His flying experience included over 40 types of aircraft from the early Bleriots and Grahame-White boxkites to the early airliners of the immediate post-war period. But it was his attempt to fly Elsie Mackay across the Atlantic (to fulfill her ambition to become the first woman to make the journey by air) which made him most famous, cost him his life, in 1928, and also by the manner in which their fate is recorded. Although unknown, the final entry in this log-book, was written by his wife and apparently came from his own report made during a seance, so from "beyond the grave". This account made headlines at the time, because of the popularity of the Spiritualist movement, and he became one of the subjects in "The Airmen who Would Not Die" by John G. Fuller. A fascinating story, this extremely rare original edition of the log-books, from 1916 to 1928, providing full details of his life and fate.

Seller Inventory # 008118

Bibliographic Details

• Title: WALTER GEORGE RAYMOND HINCHLIFFE. AVIATOR
• Publisher: Privately published, Melbourne, Australia
• Publication Date: 1969
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Limited Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)