Aviation pioneers. A photograph album containing approximately 380 photographs and real photo postcards, depicting early aviators and aeroplanes, collected by a Miss G. Choate, all corner mounted, including approx. 70 photographs signed by aviators such as: Claude Grahame-White, Thomas O. M. Sopwith, Edwin A. V. Roe, Francis K. McClean, and Harry G. Hawker, plus a few colour printed early aviation postcards, including a souvenir postcard from the first English airmail flight, dated 'Sp 9 1911', some photographs faded (mostly unsigned towards rear of album), support leaves brittle and faded, many detached, contemporary cloth, worn, spine detached and loosely inserted, plus a few loose photographs at rear, a copy of 'Flying at Hendon: a Pictorial Record', compiled by Clive R. Smith, 1974, and several ink manuscript notes from aviators, addressed to Miss Choate and accompanying signed photographs sent to her, 4toQTY: (1)NOTE:Miss G. Choate lived at Hendon and apparently spent much of her time at Hendon airfield, watching and buying photographs of early aviators and their aircraft. Indeed, it appears that she may have taken some of the photographs herself. In one of the signed manuscript notes, sent to Miss Choate to accompany a photograph that an aviator was returning after signing, the airman remarks, "May I compliment you on the excellency of the photo, by its sharpness your lens must be very good...", and in several of the manuscript notes the aviators ask if it is possible to obtain a copy of the photograph Miss Choate has taken of them.The subjects of the signed photographs include:Claude Grahame-White (1879-1959) was an English pioneer of aviation, and the first to make a night flight. He was one of the first people to qualify as a pilot in England, becoming the holder of Royal Aero Club certificate No. 6 in April 1910. One of the most influential aviation pioneers, he was nvolved in promoting the military application of air power before the First World War with a campaign called "Wake Up Britain", whilst experimenting with fitting various weapons and bombs to aircraft. During the war itself he flew the first night patrol mission against an expected German raid on 5 September 1914. In 1911 he established a flying school at Hendon Aerodrome, and many of the signed photographs in this collection are from pilots attending the Grahame-White Flying School. Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith (1888-1989) was an English aviation pioneer. During the First World War his Sopwith Aviation Company, based at Brooklands, produced more than 18,000 aircraft for the allied forces, including nearly 6,000 Sopwith Camel single-seat fighters. Financial troubles after the war resulted in Sopwith closing his company, but then re-forming it under the name of his chief engineer and test pilot Harry Hawker. Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe (1877-1958) was a pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, and founder in 1910 of the Avro company. In 1909 he became the first Englishman to fly an all-British machine. Francis Kennedy McClean (1876-1955) was a British civil engineer and pioneer aviator, one of the founding members of the Royal Aero Club and one of the founders of naval aviation and amateur flying. Harry George Hawker (1889-1921) was an Australian aviation pioneer. He was the chief test pilot for Sopwith and was also involved in the design of many of their aircraft. After the First World War, he co-founded Hawker Aircraft. This signed photographic postcard seems to commemorate his winning of the No. 1 British Michelin Cup for 1912, judging by the ink manuscript inscription.Plus numerous others including: D. Graham Gilmour (1885-1912), Charles Grey Grey (known as ‘C G’; 1875-1953), Charles Gordon Bell (1889-1918), William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse (1887-1915), Wilfred Parke (1889-1912), William Hugh Ewen (1879-1947), Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks (1887-1971), Sydney Vincent Sippe (1889-1968), Louis Noel (1872-1939), Harold Blackburn (1879-1959), Arthur Murray Longmore (1885-1970), Louis Arbon Strange (1891-1966), Samuel Franklin Cody (1867-1913).
