Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Sir Francis Kennedy McClean, (1 February 1876 – 11 August 1955) was a British civil engineer and pioneer
aviator
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
.
Sir Francis was one of the founding members of the
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910.
History
The Aero Club was foun ...
and one of the founders of naval aviation and amateur flying.
Early life
McClean was born on 1 February 1876, the son of astronomer
Frank McClean
Frank McClean FRS, FRAS (13 November 1837 – 8 November 1904) was a British astronomer and pioneer of objective prism spectrography.
Life
His father was the engineer J. R. McClean, FRS. Graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1859, Fra ...
, and was educated at
Charterhouse
Charterhouse may refer to:
* Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order
Charterhouse may also refer to:
Places
* The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery
* Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey
London ...
before the
Royal Indian Engineering College
The Royal Indian Engineering College (or RIEC) was a British college of Civil Engineering run by the India Office to train civil engineers for service in the Indian Public Works Department. It was located on the Cooper's Hill estate, near Egham, ...
at Cooper's Hill.
His grandfather
John Robinson McClean
John Robinson McClean CB FRS FRSA FRAS (21 March 1813 – 13 July 1873), was a British civil engineer and Liberal Party politician. He carried out many important works, and for a time was the sole owner of a main line railway, the first indivi ...
, also a
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
, came from
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
. McClean worked as a civil engineer in the Indian Public Works Department from 1898 to 1902 when he left to focus on
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
matters.
Interest in astronomy
Through is father's influence, McClean was an enthusiastic amateur astronomer and especially interested in solar eclipses. He was a volunteer assistant on the
30 August 1905 solar eclipse expedition to
Palma, Majorca
Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorc ...
. McClean organized 2 astronomical expeditions: one to
Flint Island
Flint Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Southern Line Islands under the jurisdiction of Kiribati. In 2014 the Kiribati government established a exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Is ...
for the
3 January 1908 solar eclipse and the other to
Port Davey
Port Davey is an oceanic inlet located in the south west region of Tasmania, Australia.
Port Davey was named in honour of Thomas Davey, a former Governor of Tasmania. Port Davey is contained within the Port Davey/Bathurst Harbour Marine Natu ...
for the
9 May 1910 solar eclipse; however, bad weather thwarted observations in both expeditions. He also accompanied the expedition organized by
Sir Norman Lockyer to
Vava'u for the
28 April 1911 solar eclipse. McClean made generous gifts to the
Lockyer Observatory.
Aviator
His first flying experience was in 1907 in a balloon race in Berlin, and in December 1908 he flew with
Wilbur Wright in
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
.
At the start of 1909, he began a co-operation with the
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...
to develop heavier-than-air aviation in Britain.
McLean owned the ground on which the aerodromes at
Leysdown and then
Eastchurch
Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers".
Aviation history
Eastchu ...
were built.
He was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate Number 21 after flying a
Short S.27
The Short S.27 and its derivative, the Short Improved S.27 (sometimes called the Short-Sommer biplane), were a series of early British aircraft built by Short Brothers. They were used by the Admiralty and Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps fo ...
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
at
Royal Naval Air Station Eastchurch
Royal Air Force Eastchurch or more simply RAF Eastchurch (formerly RNAS Eastchurch) is a former Royal Air Force station near Eastchurch village, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England. The history of aviation at Eastchurch stretches back to the fi ...
on 20 September 1910.
Between 1909 and 1914 he owned sixteen different aircraft, all but one built by Short Brothers.
In February 1911, he offered to let both the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
and
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
use the aircraft and airfield at Eastchurch to teach naval and military personnel to fly heavier-than-air machines.
Although the War Office had declined, the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
accepted and started to train the first
naval aviators
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It inc ...
.
McClean was also a pioneer in
aerial photography
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircra ...
: with the help of
Hugh Spottiswoode
William Hugh Spottiswoode (12 July 1864 – 20 August 1915) was an English printer, businessman and amateur cricketer.
Early life
Spottiswoode was born at Belgravia in London, the eldest son of William Spottiswoode and his wife Eliza in 1864. ...
he took some acclaimed photographs of the wreck of the
SS ''Oceana'' just off the coast at
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
.
In August 1912, he flew a floatplane between the upper and lower parts of
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule and Suspended-deck suspension bridge, suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones (architect), Horace Jones and e ...
and underneath
London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
.
In 1914, he made a flight following the course of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
between
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
and
Khartoum
Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...
in a specially built four-seater aircraft, the
Short S.80
The Short S.80 was an early British floatplane built by Short Brothers for Frank McClean to undertake an aerial expedition up the Nile to investigate the cataracts between Aswan and Khartoum. After a successful flight to Khartoum it was returned ...
''The Nile''. Beset by mechanical problems, the flight took from 2 January until 22 March. Upon the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in August he was commissioned in the
Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...
and carried out patrols in the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
before becoming chief instructor at Eastchurch. He transferred to the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
when it was formed in 1918 but resigned his commission in 1919. McLean was a founder member of the Aero Club of Great Britain (later the
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910.
History
The Aero Club was foun ...
) and was Chairman in 1923-24 and again from 1941 to 1944.
McClean served as
High Sheriff of Oxfordshire
The High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'.
The title of High Sheriff is therefore much older ...
for 1932/33.
Family and later life
McClean married Aileen Wale in 1918 and they had two daughters.
Their elder daughter, Frances, married
Sir Arthur Eliott of Stobs, 11th Bt, and their younger daughter, Iona, married
, 6th Baron Carrington">Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington.
In 1932, Sir Francis was appointed
High Sheriff of Oxfordshire
The High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'.
The title of High Sheriff is therefore much older ...
.
He died on 11 August 1955 in London after a long illness.
His name is listed on a memorial on the
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derived ...
commemorating thirteen pioneer aviators.
The family of Sir Francis McClean have loaned his papers to the
Fleet Air Arm Museum
The Fleet Air Arm Museum is devoted to the history of British naval aviation. It has an extensive collection of military and civilian aircraft, aero engines, models of aircraft and Royal Navy ships (especially aircraft carriers), and paintin ...
.
Honours and awards
* 1919 –
Air Force Cross;
* 1923 – Gold Medal o
the Royal Aero Club
* 3 July 1926 – King's Birthday Honours: Lieutenant Colonel Francis Kennedy McClean was conferred the honour of a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
hood for services to aviation;
* 1932 – appointed
High Sheriff of Oxfordshire
The High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'.
The title of High Sheriff is therefore much older ...
.
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk
/ref>
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McClean, Francis
1876 births
1955 deaths
English aviators
English civil engineers
People educated at Charterhouse School
Alumni of the Royal Indian Engineering College
People from Westminster
Royal Air Force officers
Royal Air Force personnel of World War I
Royal Naval Air Service aviators
Royal Navy officers of World War I
Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)
High Sheriffs of Oxfordshire
Knights Bachelor
Engineers from London
Military personnel from London