John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara, GBE, MC (8 February 1884 – 17 May 1964) was a London born English aviation pioneer and Conservative politician.
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Pioneer avaitor
He learned to fly in 1908 in France in a Voisin biplane. He became the first resident Englishman to make an officially recognized aeroplane flight in England was JTC Moore-Brabazon on 2 May 1909 on the Isle of Sheppey at Leysdown, Kent with flights of 450ft, 600ft, and 1500ft. On 4 May 1909 Moore-Brabazon had his picture taken outside of the aero club Mussel Manor, now known as Muswell Manor, alongside the Wright Brothers, Short Brothers, Rolls, and many early aviation pioneers.
On 30 October 1909, flying a Short Brothers aircraft, he flew a circular mile and won a 1,000 pound prize offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. On November 4, 1909, as a joke to prove that pigs could fly,[1] he put a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane. This may have been the first live cargo flight by airplane. With Charles Rolls he would later make the first ascent in a spherical gas balloon made in England by the Short brothers.
On 8 March 8 1910 Moore-Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club certificate number 1, his car also bore the number-plate FLY 1. However only 4 months late, his friend Charles Rolls was killed in a flying accident and Moore-Brabazon's wife pursuaded him to give up flying.
World War I
With the outbreak of War, Moore-Brabazon return to flying, joining the Royal Flying Corps. He served on the Western Front where he played a key role in the development of aerial photography and reconnaissance. In March 1915 he was promoted to captain and appointed as an equipment officer.[2] On the 1 April 1918, when the Royal Flying Corps merged with the Royal Naval Air Service, to form the Royal Air Force, Moore-Brabazon was appointed as a staff officer (first class) and made a temporary lieutenant-colonel.[3]
Moore-Brabazon finished the war with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and had been awarded the Military Cross.
Conservative MP
Moore-Brabazon later became a Conservative Member of Parliament for Chatham (1918-1929) and Wallasey (1931-1942) and served as a junior minister in the 1920s, then Minister of Transport and Minister of Aircraft Production in Winston Churchill's wartime government. He was forced to resign in 1942 for expressing the hope that Germany and the Soviet Union, then engaged in the Battle of Stalingrad, would destroy each other. Since the Soviet Union was fighting the war on the same side as Britain, the hope that it should be destroyed, though common in the Conservative Party, was unacceptable to the war effort.[1]
Later life
Moore-Brabazon was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Brabazon of Tara in 1942. 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 September 4, 1949. It was then and still is (as of 2004[update]) the largest aeroplane built in Britain.
A keen golfer, Moore-Brabazon was captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the governing body of golf, from 1952-1953. At the age of 70 he was still riding the Cresta Run.
Moore-Brabazon was President of the Middlesex County Automobile Club from 1946 until his death in 1964.
In 1906, he married Hilda Mary Krabbé, with whom he had two sons.
References
- ^ a b Arnold-Baker, Charles (1996, 2001): The Companion to British History. Routledge, London. ISBN 0-415-18583-1.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29134, p. 3806, 16 April 1915. Retrieved on 2009-05-06.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 30607, p. 4030, 2 April 1918. Retrieved on 2009-05-07.
External links
- National Portrait Gallery
- Photograph by Cecil Beaton, 1940
- Portrait in Pastels by Alfred Egerton Cooper, 1958
Offices held
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gerald Fitzroy Hohler |
Member of Parliament for Chatham 1918–1929 |
Succeeded by Sydney Frank Markham |
| Preceded by Robert Chadwick |
Member of Parliament for Wallasey 1931–1942 |
Succeeded by George Leonard Reakes |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Reith |
Minister of Transport 1940–1941 |
Succeeded by The Lord Leathers as Minister of War Transport |
| Preceded by The Lord Beaverbrook |
Minister of Aircraft Production 1941–1942 |
Succeeded by John Llewellin |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Brabazon of Tara 1942–1964 |
Succeeded by Derek Moore-Brabazon |
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