The Beginning
After the discovery of the Tin Box and my fascination with its contents, I wrote a post or two for The Digital Aviator. In the same way that picking at a flap of lifted wallpaper or damaged plaster leads only in one direction, so did this slow start gather momentum as the story began to unfold.
As impressive as the material within the Tin Box is, without the context surrounding the events and the meticulous research required to ensure authenticity and properly illustrate the story, we have only a sketch of passing interest. When looked at without the tinted spectacles, the research task is colossal and beyond the time resources available to a single soul with a life to lead and a deadline to meet. Another head on task was essential: there was only ever one person to fill that role, my friend and colleague Syd Buxton. Syd has a sharp analytical mind a deep regard for the history of the RFC and Royal Air Force. As an ex-RAF pilot and CFS graduate he brings insight that adds colour and perspective perhaps invisible to the unschooled observer.
We have several years ahead of us transcribing letters and establishing detailed contexts surrounding Arthur at the various stages of his career. His letters home contain events that sometimes lend credence to (spectacular) events plucked from the everyday and presented as fiction by Biggles' creator, Captain W.E.Johns.
Arthur was clearly a talented, reserved individual who was described after his death (by his squadron colleagues) as 'one of the most popular figures within the RFC/RAF'. Bringing his story to the fore is proving to be a challenge but we've found gems within his papers and our wider research. Had this man lived he may well have ascended to the highest ranks within the new Royal Air Force, he was offered choices of a career path that would have led to this. Had he returned to civilian life I'm sure he would have become a driving force on the engineering scene in the UK. His love of machinery and engineering pointed toward his grandfather's creation, Guest Keen & Nettlefold (GKN).
Our intention is to publish a book and other media to coincide with a major event in Arthur's life falling within the Centenary commemorations of the Great War. If his story inspires others, there may be an honorable dividend added to the life of a long departed soul who looked into the same sky we do today but gazed upon a storm, the like of which we pray we will never see again.
Norman Rhodes & Syd Buxton
Piers, Andrew and Rupert Dent at The Shuttleworth Collection with the SE5a. Arthur's last mount.
After the discovery of the Tin Box and my fascination with its contents, I wrote a post or two for The Digital Aviator. In the same way that picking at a flap of lifted wallpaper or damaged plaster leads only in one direction, so did this slow start gather momentum as the story began to unfold.
As impressive as the material within the Tin Box is, without the context surrounding the events and the meticulous research required to ensure authenticity and properly illustrate the story, we have only a sketch of passing interest. When looked at without the tinted spectacles, the research task is colossal and beyond the time resources available to a single soul with a life to lead and a deadline to meet. Another head on task was essential: there was only ever one person to fill that role, my friend and colleague Syd Buxton. Syd has a sharp analytical mind a deep regard for the history of the RFC and Royal Air Force. As an ex-RAF pilot and CFS graduate he brings insight that adds colour and perspective perhaps invisible to the unschooled observer.
We have several years ahead of us transcribing letters and establishing detailed contexts surrounding Arthur at the various stages of his career. His letters home contain events that sometimes lend credence to (spectacular) events plucked from the everyday and presented as fiction by Biggles' creator, Captain W.E.Johns.
Arthur was clearly a talented, reserved individual who was described after his death (by his squadron colleagues) as 'one of the most popular figures within the RFC/RAF'. Bringing his story to the fore is proving to be a challenge but we've found gems within his papers and our wider research. Had this man lived he may well have ascended to the highest ranks within the new Royal Air Force, he was offered choices of a career path that would have led to this. Had he returned to civilian life I'm sure he would have become a driving force on the engineering scene in the UK. His love of machinery and engineering pointed toward his grandfather's creation, Guest Keen & Nettlefold (GKN).
Our intention is to publish a book and other media to coincide with a major event in Arthur's life falling within the Centenary commemorations of the Great War. If his story inspires others, there may be an honorable dividend added to the life of a long departed soul who looked into the same sky we do today but gazed upon a storm, the like of which we pray we will never see again.
Norman Rhodes & Syd Buxton
Piers, Andrew and Rupert Dent at The Shuttleworth Collection with the SE5a. Arthur's last mount.
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