Looking back – Biplane drops in on Horsham

It may have been the third plane to land in Horsham in as many years but when William Henry Elliott landed on a nearby field on this day (April 21) in 1914 it attracted a crowd of more than 1,000!

William was the second son (of three) of a well known Horsham shop owner Mr T. Elliott who ran a fruit and butcher’s business in West Street.

However, William, as he later explained, became ‘tired of selling carrots’ and paid £65 (equivalent to £9,500 today) to learn to fly at the Avro Flying School in Brooklands, near Weybridge.

Avro had been founded in 1910 by a pioneer in flight training, Alliott Verdon Roe, who used his initials to name the company.

However, the school closed after a couple of years and the planes were auctioned off. William bought them at £10 a time, being practically the only bidder.

He then took over the Shoreham Flying School in 1913 at the town’s aerodrome, in partnership with Mr B.H. England (the son of Mr C.S. England, of Hall Lands, Slinfold).

A few months later they were together, flying over Horsham and preparing to land.

The plane, one of three William owned, was a Henry Farman biplane, with a Gnome engine of 50bhp and weighed in all around 1,000lb. However, the plane had to be tied to the ground to prevent the wind moving it!

They had built it themselves at Shoreham recently at a cost of £105 and late on April 21, 1914, they decided to take it for a trip to Horsham.

At 6.10pm they set off from Shoreham and took 20 minutes to get to their destination, encountering an air pocket on the way and dropping 200 feet!

They circled over the town three times and provided a display of flying for the townsfolk, getting lower each time. Finally they landed in Chesworth Meadow, adjoining a private road from Denne Road to Chesworth.

A newspaper report commented that the plane ‘…proved an immense attraction. The hurrying and constant stream of people eastwards can best be likened to a response to the fire-bell’.

The landing was ‘a bit clumsy’ according to William as there was a technical problem.

A supply of petrol was provided for the return journey which would be the following day. Two men were left overnight to keep an eye on the plane because, as the newspaper reported ‘local militant suffragettes, if there are any, might otherwise have been tempted by the opportunity’.

A police sergeant and Supt T. Golding made an early appearance at the meadow as hundreds of people gathered to watch the plane leaving. The two airmen arrived at 5.45am with some friends.

However, their preliminary attempt to leave was hampered by the crowd who got in the way. In fact, one man only just missed being struck by a wing, falling to the ground in fear of his life!

William finally took off for a short flight on his own to check the plane before landing and picking up his colleague. The two of them soared away in the aircraft, spiralling into the sky and setting off back to Shoreham.

William decided to advertise trips from Horsham to Shoreham and back at a cost of £2 2s, but it was reported that no one took up the offer!

Just a few months later, of course, the First World War began. William and his brother Bernard both served as flying officers (captains) in the Royal Naval Air Service.

Both survived the conflict, although William was very ill after getting involved in the infamous seige of Kut Al Amara near Baghdad when around 13,000 British-Indian soldiers surrendered.

Sadly, Bernard died in 1931 when his car overturned near Crawley.

William’s other brother, Wallace Harold, had a very distinguished career in the church! He was a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, a chaplain to the King and on several occasion preached before the Royal Family.

He became know as the ‘Radio Chaplain’ due to his BBC broadcasts and in 1942 appeared on the long-running programme Desert Island Discs.