Tom Campbell Black (December 1899 – 19 September 1936) was an
English aviator.
![Florence Desmond & Campbell Black](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Florence_Desmond_%26_Campbell_Black.jpg)
He was the son of Alice Jean McCullough and Hugh Milner Black. He became a world-famous
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 ...
when he and
C. W. A. Scott
Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC (13 February 1903 – 15 April 1946Dunnell ''Aeroplane'', November 2019, p. 46.) was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a tim ...
won the London to Melbourne Centenary Air Race in 1934.
Early years
Tom Campbell Black attended
Brighton College
Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...
and the records for the period summer 1915 to summer 1917 indicate that he entered Hampden House, May 1915, was appointed House Prefect, January 1917 and played Second XI Football, 1915 to 1916 and 1916 to 1917. Campbell Black attended Army Class II and entered the RN College at Greenwich and attained a commission in the R.N.A.S. (Naval Air Service). He served first as a pilot in the Naval Air Service and later in the RAF during the
Great 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 ...
, rising to the rank of captain. Arriving in Africa as a soldier settler in 1922, he joined his brother, Frank Milner Black, who had been stationed as a soldier in
Kenya
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and decommissioned in 1920.
Tom Campbell Black
Black family history has it that Tom and his brother managed a coffee plantation in British East Africa
East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britai ...
, in the 1920s. Their farm was between the towns of Rongai and Eldama Ravine, in the Rift Valley, about northwest of Nairobi. Tom was a noted horseman who was an award-winning show jumper, winning a competition in 1925. He later bred and raised race horses, which remained a passion of his throughout his life.
It is stated in the Shuttleworth Collection Records, England, that an aircraft currently in their collection, a de Havilland DH.51
The de Havilland DH.51 is a 1920s British three-seat touring biplane built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware.
Design and development
De Havilland designed the DH.51 as an economical touring biplane, based on the 90 hp (67&n ...
, was built in 1925 and shortly after John Evans Carberry bought and shipped it to Mombasa
Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...
. The DH.51 first flew in Africa on 4 April 1926. In June 1928, Tom Campbell Black, G. Skinner and A. Hughes bought the aircraft and on 10 September 1928, it became the first aircraft to be registered in Kenya
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. Named ''Miss Kenya'', it was first registered G-KAA, but with the change in the registration system, it was re-registered VP-KAA.
Wilson Airways
After flying with Campbell Black in February 1929, Florence Kerr Wilson Florence Kerr Wilson OBE (1879-September 1966) was a pioneer of aviation in East Africa. She founded and operated Wilson Airways Ltd., which operated from airfields in Nairobi from 1929 until the airline was absorbed by the Kenyan military in 1939 ...
was encouraged by his enthusiasm to form Wilson Airways Ltd., in Kenya. At inception later in the same year, her airline possessed a single Gypsy Moth
''Lymantria dispar'', also known as the gypsy moth or the spongy moth, is a species of moth in the family Erebidae. ''Lymantria dispar'' is subdivided into several subspecies, with subspecies such as ''L. d. dispar'' and ''L. d. japonica'' bei ...
aircraft, primarily piloted by Campbell Black. The airline grew into a comprehensive air carrier across Kenya. Captain Hugo Dunkerley, the editor of ''Aeroken'' and the special correspondent of the ''East African Standard'', accompanied Campbell Black in the first flight from Nairobi to Mombasa and back in a single day, on 21 November 1929. He also accompanied Tom in November 1930 on a roundtrip flight from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, and back to Nairobi in just over nine hours. Tom Campbell Black was the managing director/chief pilot of Wilson Airways, but in March 1932, he resigned from Wilson Airways and left Kenya to take up an employment offer made by Lord Marmaduke Furness, a renowned horse breeder, to be his personal pilot and live back in England.
While the company was profitable, Wilson Airways was disbanded in 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War.
The Ernst Udet rescue
In the 20 October 1934 Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
report of the London to Melbourne Air Race, a mention is made of an incident that happened concerning Black: "Captain T. Campbell Black asfamed for his spectacular rescue of Ernst Udet
Ernst Udet (26 April 1896 – 17 November 1941) was a German pilot during World War I and a ''Luftwaffe'' Colonel-General (''Generaloberst'') during World War II.
Udet joined the Imperial German Air Service at the age of 19, and eventually ...
, German War Ace, in the desert wastes of the treacherous Nile country three years ago." A reference to this act is found in Ernst Udet's ''Ace of the Iron Cross''.
An account of the rescue follows:
The London to Melbourne Centenary Air Race
In 1934, Campbell Black and C. W. A. Scott
Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC (13 February 1903 – 15 April 1946Dunnell ''Aeroplane'', November 2019, p. 46.) was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a tim ...
were entered in the London to Melbourne Air Race, officially known as the "MacRobertson Air Race
The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race (also known as the London to Melbourne Air Race) took place in October 1934 as part of the Melbourne Centenary celebrations. The race was devised by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Harold Gengoult Smith, and th ...
". Recorded as ''Captain T. Campbell Black'' in the starters list for the race, Campbell Black and C. W. A. Scott won the "Speed Section" of the race in an extraordinary time of 71 hours, and won the First Place Prize of 10,000 pounds. They also won the "Handicap Section" but the race rules didn't allow them to win the two sections. Black and Scott were awarded " The Britannia Trophy" and a gold medal by 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 ...
, England, presented "''For the British Aviator or Aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the previous year.''"
The Manx Air Race
The following report was made on an air race held at the Isle of Man
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: Manx Air Race 1932. Held Saturday, 18 June, total Island course: . At the end of the two laps it was Ashwell Cook with Tom Campbell Black as navigator, who came through to win in a Cirrus Moth aircraft averaging . The following references to Tom Black are recorded in the history of " Firbeck Hall", an elegant country home in England dating from , that in the mid-1930s was converted into one of the country's most exclusive sporting country clubs.
Beryl Markham
Campbell Black also had a long-term affair with Beryl Markham
Beryl Markham (née Clutterbuck; 26 October 1902 – 3 August 1986) was a Kenyan aviator born in England (one of the first bush flying, bush pilots), adventurer, racehorse trainer and author. She was the first person to fly solo, non-stop acros ...
, an aviator who lived in Kenya who had been introduced to aviation by Campbell Black. He subsequently became her flight instructor, which Markham describes in her memoir ''West with the Night
''West with the Night'' is a 1942 memoir by Beryl Markham, chronicling her experiences growing up in Kenya (then British East Africa) in the early 1900s, leading to celebrated careers as a racehorse trainer and bush pilot there. It is considered ...
''. In September 1936, Beryl Markham achieved fame by being the first solo female aviator to fly the Atlantic Ocean from East to West (from England to America), against the prevailing winds.
The Schlesinger Race and Death
In the same year, Tom Campbell Black had entered an air race from England to Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, South Africa, "The Schlesinger Race", flown from 29 September 1936 to 1 October 1936, the race offered a prize of £10,000 to the winner. Campbell Black was one of the three favourites to win the race, all flying Percival E2H Mew Gulls.
On 19 September 1936, while preparing for the race, he was killed at Liverpool, Speke Airport
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport in Liverpool, England, on the estuary of the River Mersey south-east of Liverpool city centre. Scheduled domestic, European, North African and Middle Eastern services are operated f ...
, in a ground collision. A RAF
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 ...
bomber that had landed ran into Black's Mew Gull as he taxied out for take off. Black was reputed to have been looking down at his map at the time. The propeller of the large biplane tore through the side of Black's cockpit, striking and mortally wounding him in the chest and shoulder. He died on the way to hospital. He left a widow, the English actress Florence Desmond
Florence Dawson (31 May 1905 – 16 January 1993), better known by her stage name Florence Desmond, was an English actress, comedian and impersonator.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in London in 1905, Desmond was educated at the Dame A ...
, whom he had married in 1935.
The winners of the "Schlesinger Race
The Schlesinger Race, also known as the ''"Rand Race"'', the ''"Portsmouth – Johannesburg Race"'' or more commonly the 'African Air Race', took place in September 1936. The Royal Aero Club announced the race on behalf of Isidore William Sch ...
" were C. W. A. Scott
Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC (13 February 1903 – 15 April 1946Dunnell ''Aeroplane'', November 2019, p. 46.) was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a tim ...
, (Black's co-pilot in the 1934 MacRoberts Race) and Giles Guthrie.
Fatal incident at Speke Airport
The following is a transcript of ''Incidents Report at Speke Airport'':
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Markham, Beryl. ''West with the Night''. New York: North Point Press, 1942; reprinted, 1983. .
* McCullough, Bruce. ''Tom Campbell Black: Pioneer Aviator''. Auckland
Tom Campbell Black
* Udet, Ernst. ''Ace of the Iron Cross''. New York: Arco Publishing, 1981. .
External links
Tom Campbell Black
Norman Black a renowned motor cycle and motor car racing driver 1920-1950s Cousin of Tom Campbell Black
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell Black, Tom
1899 births
1936 deaths
People from Brighton
People educated at Brighton College
English aviators
Royal Air Force officers
Britannia Trophy winners