Wallis & Wallis
Los 543
R100 airship. A unique archive of R100 Airship related material, pertaining to Henry Cumley, a Derby based Rolls Royce engineer seconded to the R100 programme from August 1929 to October 1930, during which time he accompanied the airship on its epic voyage to and tour of Canada as a flight engineer responsible for one of the six Rolls Royce Condor engines. The archive includes his red on black wool embroidered “Royal Airship Works R100” cap badge and a postcard photograph of him in uniform, presumably wearing the badge (the photograph is rather dark); his Airship Engineers licence No 20, for airships fitted with Condor engines, dated 23rd May 1930 and with Air Ministry stamps (actually an Aircraft Engineers licence with the word “Aircraft” crossed out and “Airship” typed above); manual for “Condor Engine Series III”, Air Ministry 1926, the cover stamped “Rolls Royce Ltd, Test Department”, and with his name and address inside the cover; his British Passport dated 1930, valid for British Empire, all countries in Europe including USSR and Turkey, USA and Egypt; his 1931 diary with his business address given as “R100, Royal Airship Works, Bedford”, with rather sparse entries, the last on 29th July reads “Left Cardington with 10,440 Gals” (the day of departure for Canada); 3 hand written job references signed by “R.S. Booth, Captain HMA R100” and “W Angus, Chief Engineer R100”; 6 sheets of unused notepaper embossed with R100 logo; a small cloth pennant for the “R100 Auto Club”; approximately 90 mostly small size privately taken photos of the inside of the airship, accomodation, aerial views, etc (some rather worn), in a modern album; a single leather glove/gauntlet marked “R.A.W No22”; an Air Ministry marked stopwatch; an aluminium ash tray with miniature R100 at mooring mast in the centre, presumably from the airship; pair of wall plaques with aluminium models of the R100 at its mooring mast; literature relating to the trip to Canada, memorial service for the R101, private letters to his parents from Canada, and many more items too numerous to mention, mostly in rather worn condition, contained in a suitcase with his name and Derby address in the lid, possibly the case which he took with him to Canada. For a selection see Plate 4 Lots 543-545 relate to Harry Cumley, a Rolls Royce Engineer seconded to the R100 airship programme during 1929 and 1930
