INSIDE LEFT DOWNITY DOWN DOWN The caption accompanying the negative of this image – another from Reeves - gave us enough clues to find out quite a bit about this month’s picture. ‘M. Duval’s biplane at <strong>Lewes</strong>’, it reads. Tom and Tania revealed it was, from its catalogue number, most likely taken around 1911. Monsieur Duval turns out to be the celebrated aviator Emile Duval; the picture must have been taken during the 1911 ‘Circuit d’Europe’ race, which took place between <strong>June</strong> 18th and July 7th, with different legs setting off from Paris, Liège, Utrecht, Brussels, Roubaix, Calais, London, Calais again, and back to Paris. The ante-penultimate leg, from Calais to Hendon, included a stopover at Shoreham Airport, though by then Duval, we learn from contemporary records, had dropped out of the race. We assume M. Duval flew over the Channel despite his elimination from the race, and landed in <strong>Lewes</strong> – such unscheduled stops were common in this period of aviation. Bob Cairns, in his book <strong>Lewes</strong> Through Time, pinpoints the location to Rise Farm in Southover. As such flying machines were in their infancy (the first cross-channel flight had only taken place in 1909) the arrival of such a flamboyant figure in such a magnificent machine must have been quite an occasion for the locals. By the time the plane managed to take off again, according to a contemporary newspaper report, its chassis was covered in graffiti. Further research suggests the model measures 8-metres long and 8-metres high, and has a weight of 207 kilos. Its Paris-born pilot would have been just 24 at the time; pictures of him show he wore a splendidly waxed moustache. He was the 118th ‘Vieille Tigre’ (old tiger, French term for Flying Pioneer) to be given his licence, and he generally flew, as in this case, a Caudron biplane. Duval, unsurprisingly, joined the Armée de L’Aire (French Air Force) during WW1. He was involved in two bad accidents, the second of which earned him the Croix de Guerre as his courage in the face of adversity saved the life of his passenger and enabled the plane to be salvaged for re-use. He lived until 1956; we imagine he never forgot his unexpected stopover in <strong>Lewes</strong>. AL Thanks, as ever, to Edward Reeves, 159 High St, 01273 473274 114
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