Here’s a query from from Craig Johnston via friend of FAD John Austin-Williams who is chairman of the South African Airways Museum Society www.saamuseum.co.za and the de Havilland Aircraft Association of South Africa: Craig wrote:
I am trying to document the itinerary of a trip that Captain Geoffrey De Havilland made to Africa in 1932. Some time ago I was given a cigarette case that was presented to Captain De Havilland on that trip. The case was a gift from the Durban Light Plane Club and was presented to Captain De Havilland in January 1932. I assume in Durban?
I want to try and piece together the itinerary of Captain Geoffrey De Havilland’s visit to Africa in 1932 – His stops in Africa and dates etc. My idea is to document the trip so the information can be exhibited with the cigarette case.
Geoffrey de Havilland was an aviation pioneer and one of the most accomplished aircraft designers of all time. I hadn’t known he visited Durban and I would be most interested to hear more. I was once lucky enough to ride in a Tiger Moth which he designed.
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Trevor Friend
Barry Guess at the BAE Systems archive at Farnborough may be able to help; he can be contacted at Barry.Guess@baesystems.com
I worked there until I retired last year and I can recall seeing pictures of GdH’s trip to Africa, including going on Safari and attending a school sports day somewhere in South Africa. Rod Douglas was running the De Havilland organisation at Baragwanath airfield at the time and he accompanied GdH during much of his visit to South Africa. I don’t recall seeing any pictures of GdH visiting Durban and those pictures that I have mentioned may well have been taken by GdH himself as he had an interest in photography.
Regards,
Trevor Friend.
Nyony Kinton
Anne de Havilland (now Essex) is my cousin and lives in England. Her father was Peter de Havilland who would be a direct relative. Last email address I have
for her is
anneessex@yahoo.co.uk.
Trevor Friend
Hi Nyony,
I have some pictures of Anne de Havilland taken at Hatfield on the 23rd May 1952.
She was of course only a little girl at the time and the pictures show her presenting a bouquet of flowers to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
The occasion was a flight in the Comet 1 jet airliner (G-ALYR) that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, had previously indicated an interest in doing.
The flight had been arranged by Group Captain Peter Townsend (equerry to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) who had written to Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland on her behalf.
I was wondering if you might want to see these images and if so, whether they could be E-mailed direct to you or posted on this web site.
Best wishes.