Richard Harold Barnwell (3 April 1879 – 25 August 1917) was an English

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 ...

pioneer, who began as an aircraft builder. He died while test-flying an early Vickers fighter aircraft.

Life

He was born in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

in southeast London on 3 April 1879, the son of Richard Barnwell, a director of the Clyde shipbuilder Fairfield. Barnwell was brought up at Elcho House in Balfron, Stirlingshire, and educated at Fettes College in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. He had a younger brother, Frank. Frank and Harold Barnwell built their first

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

in 1905 in Balfron and later built three powered aircraft. They then opened the Grampian Engineering and Motor Company in 1906 at Causewayhead in Stirling. From their garage, they produced three aircraft between 1908 and 1910. The first was underpowered and failed to fly, but the second, a

canard Canard is French for duck, a type of aquatic bird. Canard may also refer to: Aviation *Canard (aeronautics), a small wing in front of an aircraft's main wing * Aviafiber Canard 2FL, a single seat recreational aircraft of canard design * Blé ...

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 ...

was successfully flown from a field in Causewayhead under the

Wallace Monument The National Wallace Monument (generally known as the Wallace Monument) is a 67 metre tower on the shoulder of the Abbey Craig, a hilltop overlooking Stirling in Scotland. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, a 13th- and 14th-century Scottish hero ...

on 28 July 1909.''Pilcher to the Planets'', Cameron, Galbraith and Thomson Piloted by Harold, it only flew 80 yards (75 m) at an altitude of about four metres before it crashed, but it is still recognised as

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

's first powered fligh. Next, the brothers built a

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

with which Harold won a prize of £50 offered by the Scottish Aeronautical Society for the first flight of more than a mile to be made in Scotland in January 1911.The Scottish War Memorials Project In 1911 both brothers moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and in 1912 Harold, after gaining his pilot's licence (No.278) at the

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

school at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

in September joined the staff of the new Vickers School of Flying, also at Brooklands. Here he was the instructor who helped

Noel Pemberton Billing Noel Pemberton Billing (31 January 1881 – 11 November 1948), sometimes known as Noel Pemberton-Billing, was a British aviator, inventor, publisher and Member of Parliament for Hertford. He founded the firm that became Supermarine and promoted ...

win his £50 bet with Frederick Handley Page by learning to fly and gaining a pilot's licence in a single day. In late 1914, Harold Barnwell, now chief

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

with

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

, designed a single seat "scout" or fast reconnaissance aircraft, and had it built without the knowledge or approval of his employers, "borrowing" a Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine from Vickers' stores to power the aircraft. Barnwell attempted the first flight of his design, named the "Barnwell Bullet" in early 1915, but the aircraft crashed and was wrecked, possibly due to a miscalculated

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

Death, memorial and legacy

Barnwell Brothers memorial (geograph 2587728)

Harold Barnwell died on 25 August 1917 while test flying the prototype

Vickers Vampire The Vickers F.B.26 Vampire was a British single-seat pusher biplane fighter built by Vickers during the First World War. Four were built by Vickers at Bexleyheath, one of these was subsequently modified to become the F.B.26A. Design and deve ...

night fighter at Joyce Green, Kent. Webster states that he may have been taken ill while at the controls. Harold was buried near Brooklands in St Mary's Churchyard,

Byfleet Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation. The village is of medieval origin. Its winding ...

, Surrey. The grave is marked by an unusual obelisk type of memorial with a simple inscription recording the date and location of his death and that the monument was funded by his brothers and sisters. A silver granite sculpture with a wingspan, set atop a

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

at Causewayhead in Stirling, yards from the site of the Grampian Motor and Engineering Company, commemorates the brothers' pioneering flights. A plaque to commemorate the centenary of the first flight was erected in Balfron. Some artifacts from the Barnwells' days were discovered before the Grampian Engineering and Motor Company closed. An original wing strut is on display at the

Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, formerly The Smith Institute, is an art and local history museum in Stirling, Scotland. The museum was founded in 1874 at the bequest of artist Thomas Stuart Smith. History Founding Thomas Stuart Smi ...

Life

Death, memorial and legacy

References

Further reading