Douglas Graham GILMOUR [29417]

  General Notes:

Douglas Graham Gilmour
Granted French Aero Club Aviators Certificate No.Fr.75 19 April 1910
Stanley Gilmour
Douglas had one brother (and this is where I come in) named Stanley Graham Gilmour who it just so happens was my grandfather, hence Douglas (who dies long before I was born) was my Great Uncle. Stanley joined the British army and came out to South Africa shortly after the conclusion of the 2nd Boer war (he used to amuse me as he referred to himself as a member of the army of occupation). He lived in Southern Rhodesia until the start of the 1st World War whereupon he enlisted in the Argyle and Southerland Highlanders back in Britain. However given his relationship to Douglas Air Marshall Trenchard, the first Air Marshall of the Royal Flying Corps asked him to enlist in the RFC as an aviator. The argument being that they needed good men who had some understanding of aviation (again the link to Douglas). He flew for years on all sorts of sorties over France and was eventually shot down over the war zone and imprisoned in a concentration camp by the Germans until the end of the war in 1918. He used to tell many funny stories about being fed 'black bread" and potato skin soup by the Germans! I guess he was a pioneering aviator in the RFC. My mother has a photo album of all sorts of planes which he flew (I have a couple myself) most of which seem in one way or another to have ended up crashed into barns, hangers, fields or upside down into other buildings. He was never hurt (I guess because the planes flew so slowly but the pictures have always amused me! What a pity a man like him has never been recognised for his services to his country so early in the history of planes and their use to defend Britain!
Douglas Crosses the Channel in His Bleriot
Back to Douglas - he appears to have been a bit of a wild child and took many risks during his life, ultimately paying for them with his life somewhere in Southern England. My grandfather often used to tell the story of Douglas's great claim to fame being that he went to France to purchase a Bleriot bi-plane which he then flew back across the channel in 1910. He was also the first man to fly over the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, and here I am not certain if it was 1910 or 1911 (I think the latter) for which he was reprimanded by the authorities and told he could not fly any more. His retort I am told was that he told them where to go as he didn't need a license to fly and he ignored them (fairly typical response from him I believe!). Obviously since he dies in early 1912 a promising young life was cut short. I know my grandfather Stanley was born in 1887 and I believe that Douglas was older than he so he must have been about 27 when he died.
Not sure how much other information I can dredge up from the depths of my memory but I do have somewhere in the house a photocopy of very old article from a paper in Britain written about Douglas at the time he died. If I can find it and if you are interested in it I can scan it in and email it to you.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
John Graham Gilmour.
http://www.earlyaviators.com/egilmou1.htm

  Other Records

1. Douglas Graham Gilmour, 1910-1912, Richmond Park SRY.
Douglas at work in his overalls, with an early Bristol Box Kite Bi Plane, scene of the crash which killed him:
While testing a new Bristol monoplane in a flight from Brooklands to Richmond, Mr. Graham Gilmour, the well-known aviator, was killed on Saturday, owing to the machine suddenly collapsing. We give above two views of the wrecked aeroplane and on inset the ill-fated aviator.
Nottingham Guardian Feb 1912
Courtesy of Anthony Young, 10-22-07