Richard Harold Barnwell (3 April 1879 – 25 August 1917) was an English

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

pioneer, who began as an aircraft builder. He died while test-flying an early Vickers fighter aircraft.

Life

He was born in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

in southeast London on 3 April 1879, the son of Richard Barnwell, a director of the

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

shipbuilder Fairfield. Barnwell was brought up at Elcho House in

Balfron Balfron ( gd, Both Fron) is a village in the Stirling council area of Scotland. It is situated near Endrick Water on the A875 road, 18 miles (29 km) west of Stirling and 16 miles (26 km) north of Glasgow. Although a rural settlement, ...

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling. It borders Perth ...

, and educated at

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. He had a younger brother,

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

. Frank and Harold Barnwell built their first

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

in 1905 in Balfron and later built three powered aircraft. They then opened the Grampian Engineering and Motor Company in 1906 at Causewayhead in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

. From their garage, they produced three aircraft between 1908 and 1910. The first was underpowered and failed to fly, but the second, a canard biplane was successfully flown from a field in Causewayhead under the

Wallace Monument The National Wallace Monument (generally known as the Wallace Monument) is a 67 metre tower on the shoulder of the Abbey Craig, a hilltop overlooking Stirling in Scotland. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, a 13th- and 14th-century Scottish hero ...

on 28 July 1909.''Pilcher to the Planets'', Cameron, Galbraith and Thomson Piloted by Harold, it only flew 80 yards (75 m) at an altitude of about four metres before it crashed, but it is still recognised as

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

's first powered fligh. Next, the brothers built a

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with which Harold won a prize of £50 offered by the Scottish Aeronautical Society for the first flight of more than a mile to be made in Scotland in January 1911.The Scottish War Memorials Project In 1911 both brothers moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and in 1912 Harold, after gaining his pilot's licence (No.278) at the

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

school at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfie ...

in September joined the staff of the new Vickers School of Flying, also at Brooklands. Here he was the instructor who helped

Noel Pemberton Billing Noel Pemberton Billing (31 January 1881 – 11 November 1948), sometimes known as Noel Pemberton-Billing, was a British aviator, inventor, publisher and Member of Parliament for Hertford. He founded the firm that became Supermarine and promoted ...

win his £50 bet with

Frederick Handley Page Sir Frederick Handley Page, CBE, FRAeS (15 November 1885 – 21 April 1962) was an English industrialist who was a pioneer in the aircraft industry and became known as the father of the heavy bomber. His company Handley Page Limited was ...

by learning to fly and gaining a pilot's licence in a single day. In late 1914, Harold Barnwell, now chief

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

with

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

, designed a single seat "scout" or fast reconnaissance aircraft, and had it built without the knowledge or approval of his employers, "borrowing" a

Gnome Monosoupape The ''Monosoupape'' (French for single-valve), was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company (renamed Gnome et Rhône in 1915). It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single pushrod-operated e ...

rotary engine The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...

from Vickers' stores to power the aircraft. Barnwell attempted the first flight of his design, named the "Barnwell Bullet" in early 1915, but the aircraft crashed and was wrecked, possibly due to a miscalculated

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force ma ...

Death, memorial and legacy

Barnwell Brothers memorial (geograph 2587728)

Harold Barnwell died on 25 August 1917 while test flying the prototype

Vickers Vampire The Vickers F.B.26 Vampire was a British single-seat pusher biplane fighter built by Vickers during the First World War. Four were built by Vickers at Bexleyheath, one of these was subsequently modified to become the F.B.26A. Design and deve ...

night fighter at Joyce Green, Kent. Webster states that he may have been taken ill while at the controls. Harold was buried near Brooklands in St Mary's Churchyard,

Byfleet Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation. The village is of medieval origin. Its win ...

, Surrey. The grave is marked by an unusual obelisk type of memorial with a simple inscription recording the date and location of his death and that the monument was funded by his brothers and sisters. A silver granite sculpture with a wingspan, set atop a cairn at Causewayhead in Stirling, yards from the site of the Grampian Motor and Engineering Company, commemorates the brothers' pioneering flights. A plaque to commemorate the centenary of the first flight was erected in Balfron. Some artifacts from the Barnwells' days were discovered before the Grampian Engineering and Motor Company closed. An original wing strut is on display at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum.

Life

Death, memorial and legacy

References

Further reading