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Sir John Alcock

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR JOHN WILLIAM ALCOCK (1892-1919), British airman, was born in Old Trafford, Manchester, on November 5th, 1892 (his birth was officially registered the following day). His father was a horse dealer. Alcock, commonly know as Jack, spent most of his early life living in Fallowfield, Manchester. He was educated at St Anne's Parish School and Manchester Central High School. After leaving school he was apprenticed to Empress Engineering, of Longsight, Manchester, before going to work for Norman Crosland. Charles Fletcher, owner of Empress, was an aviation enthusiast who built two aircraft of his own design as well as owning a Farman copy made by AV Roe. Alcock was very interested in these aircraft, and helped out whenever he could. This included taxiing the Farman. Empress undertook aero-engine repair work, possibly including a Gnome rotary being sold via AV Roe to Captain Wakefield of Kendal and a 35 hp Viale radial engine belonging to Maurice Ducroq (the British agent for Viale) that was fitted in an Avro D and the Avro F monoplane. Empress also designed and built rotary engines, but went out of busiess in about 1911 following legal action brought by the Seguin Brothers other infringements of patents relating to the Gnome engine. Meanwhile, in 1910, Alcock was given the job of taking an engine down to Ducroq at Brooklands. This may have been the Viale or may have been the Empress rotary, both of which are known to have arrived at Brooklands and been fitted to aircraft at around this time. Ducroq took on Alcock as a mechanic, and later taught him to fly. Alcock was granted Royal Aero Club Certificate No 368 on November 26th, 1912. In 1913 Alcock joined Sunbeam as a test pilot, flying a Farman fitted with a Sunbeam engine. In was in this aircraft that Alcock took overall 3rd place in the Hendon-Trafford Park-Hendon air race on june 20th, 1914. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service at the beginning of the World War, being appointed as a Warrant Officer instructor at Eastchurch. Periodic reports by Alcock's commanding officer recommended him for a commission, and eventually he received this together with a posting to 2 Wing RNAS, then serving in the Dardanelles. Alcock flew a number of aircraft with 2 Wing, including the only Sopwith Triplane in the Dardanelles (which he crashed and wrote off) and the only Handley Page O/100 bomber (in which he was shot down on September 30th, 1917, during a bombing raid on Constantinople). During the morning of September 30th, 1917, Alcock had been flying a Sopwith Camel that was one aircraft involved in an aeriel combat with three German seaplanes. Accounts of this combat vary. It seems that two German seaplanes were shot down or damaged, while the two-seater reconnaissance aircraft they were escorting escaped. However Alcock's Distinguished Service Cross citation, awarded for this action, suggests that Alcock alone destroyed all three German aircraft. Until recently it was believed that the German seaplanes brought down were both Albatros W4 single seat fighters. However, new research using Turkish records reveals that only Rumpler R6B-1 seaplanes 894 and 1048 were reported lost on that day, these being the only German Naval Seaplane Group aircraft to be lost in action. After the Handley Page had been brought down, Alcock and his two companions were captured by the Turks, and remained so until November 18th, 1918. Alcock returned to Britain on December 12th, 1918 and soon afterwards contacted Vickers vaiation department with a view to attempt to win the £10,000 Daily Mail newspaper prize for flying the first aircraft non-stop across the Atlantic. This he achieved in a converted Vickers Vimy bomber, which took off from Newfoundland on June 14th, 1919 and crashed on landing at Clifden, in Ireland, just under 16 hours later. Accompanying him on the flight was Glasgow-born, former American citizen, Lt Arthur Whitten Brown. In addition to the Daily Mail prize, both airmen received the KBE and were offered 'jobs for life' by Vickers. This proved Alcock's undoing as he was killed in a flying accident on December 18th, 1919. He was flying the Vickers Viking amphibian prototype to take part in the Paris Salon when he encountered dense fog and hit the ground at Cote d'Evrard, north of Rouen, in France. He was then aged 27. Alcock's body was returned to England and buried in Soutehrn Cemetery, Manchester.