Category Archives: Family History

Early Flying Experiences

It’s interesting to think that both sides of our family experienced flying in the 1920s – The Hyde side by George being in the RAF as a boy entrant (scholarship) and the Morgan side by grandmother Nellie telling a tale of winning a ride in an aeroplane as a school prize.

The tale was told of going up  in a trip with Sir Alan Cobham in a large plane; with the Mayor and lots of other people. Other details were fairly sketchy. Some other details were that it was “somewhere down by the ‘lighthouse’ (Dyffryn – Peterstone west of Newport)” and that she had to get there by pony and trap!

So with this is mind, we decided to go an find out if it was true.

Given the little we had to work with – and that Nellie was still in school, we thought it would be somewhere between the ages of 11 and 14 – so 1926 to 1929.

Today, we attended Newport Central Library to look at the local history section – and in particular the Argus reference archive.

Low and behold on 7 September 1929 – we found the following!

AlanCobham1

So it was the truth!
The day of the event was the 6 September 1929.

In terms of the plane itself it was a Giant Moth, called the Youth of Britain:

There was some coverage of his tour in Flight (this entry is from a few weeks later):
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1929/1929-1%20-%201329.html?search=sir%20alan%20cobham

 

Flanders remembrance

On May 8th this year, Rob and family had a quick visit to Belgium to attend the 100 year anniversary of the Monmouthshire Regiment’s involvement in the Battle of Frezenberg, where over 450 of the regiment were killed between 6 – 8 May 1915.

Street to The Menin Gate in Ypres
Street to The Menin Gate in Ypres

We visited to remember George Harry Hyde, who was killed on 8 May 1915, and along with 454 of his comrades.

The story of George and our visit is here:
Ypres Visit