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OBITUARIES
JOHN SIMPSON
1915-2007.
His death was reported this year and one
more of Britain’s links with pre-war
gliding has gone forever. He was also the
last living link with the old Cambridge
University Gliding Club and became its
first Silver C pilot and the first pilot to fly
in wave in the UK, both in 1937. He
came up to Emanuel College in October
1934, which he did with modest distinction
taking a second in Part 1 of the Tripos
in 1935, and a 3rd in Part 11 in 1937.
But this was a common route for school
teaching, where other activities counted
for so much and John was soon heavily
involved in the Gliding Club, which was
founded in the February of his first year.
After a few ground slides and low hops at
Dunstable, he flew with the CUGC at
Caxton Gibbet in the Michaelmas Term of
1935, and progressed to his “A” Certificate
on the 3rd December. Next May found
him as one of a party launching from near
Haslingfield in the forlorn home that Barrington
Hill might be soarable. In his second
undergraduate year, John joined the
club’s committee and, by his third year he
had joined the club’s flying committee as
an instructor. He stayed on at Emanuel
after his BA Degree as a Student Teacher
Exhibitioner, preparing to become a
School Master. After which he started his
chosen career at a school in Dorset. During
these three years with the club, John
made many memorable flights both from
Cambridge and during National Competitions;
one from Camp hill on 2nd completing
his Silver C (International Number
562. ). A week later, at a Camp on the
Long Mynd, John made a truly historic
discovery,… wave. On 8th September.
1937, he was bungeed off in the CUGC’s
Kirby KITE 1 to make the very first wave
flight in the UK, rising to 8,500 ft, Also
catching the wave was Captain R.S. Rattray
in his CAMBIDGE 2 reaching
7,900ft. John’s account does not relate
who was launched off first. It should be
related that John and John Furlong discovered
some very strange lift flying a
FALCON 3 at Dunstable in the lee of the
hill in a SE Wind shortly before this. This
must also have been wave. In the meantime,
John continued his flying from
Caxton and participated in the CUGC’s
first expedition to Dorset. Here he gained
his Silver C Height in a 20 mile out &
return flight upwind from the Purbeck
Hills. Back at Dunstable in July, he did
his 5 hour Silver C duration flight on the
hill in stormy conditions, which he
described as “horrible”. During the next
month, a CUGC team was at Camp Hill
for the 1937 National Contest, in which
he completed his Silver C (No. 18 on the
British List, No. 578 on the International
List), with a 78 mile flight to the East
Coast near Flamborough Head. 1937
ended in a new chapter in John’s gliding
career; passenger carrying in a Falcon 3
flying at Dunstable. 1938 saw him making
expeditions to other clubs with the
CUGC and the unsuccessful attempt to
soar the Western edge of the slope which
is today’s Bristol Club Site at Nymphsfield.
Back at Dunstable, he bought the
KITE 1, which he had obtained from
Keith Lingford. During 1938, he competed
in that year’s National Contest at
Dunstable in that KITE 1. It was his 3rd
National Contest. At the end of July he
was at Sutton Bank sampling the latest
Slingsby Sailplanes. i.e. the GULL 1
“the best machine he had ever flown”, a
KING KITE “Quite pleasant” and Philip
Wills’s MINIMOA “rather like the FAL-
John Simpson and John Hassle in Min
CON 3”. He spent most of August
instructing at Dunstable but, at the end
of the Month he spent two days at Bern
flying a GRUNAU BABY and a SPYR
3. Altogether, in 1938 John flew from
21 different sites, on 12 different types of
glider and this increased his total flying
time to 130 hours. New Year’s day in
1939 saw him flying his KITE 1 for an
hour over Dunstable and, in mid January,
he became assistant Mathematics master
at Clayesmore School in Dorset. He lost
no time in introducing his school pupils
to gliding and soon took delivery of the
new one and only VIKING 2 side by side
two seater. On the 7th of April 1940,
although gliding had then become illegal
for civilians, there was a gliding meeting
at Wilmington in Sussex, which is
rumoured to have been organized by Ann
Welch under the shadow of one of the
new and secret Chain home defence RDF
(Radar) stations on Beachy Head. A
VGC News No. 123 Spring 2008 45