Major Oscar Theodor Gnosspelius (10 March 1878 – 17 February 1953) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and pioneer

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

builder. Gnosspelius was born at Brookfield House,

Lydiate Lydiate is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton on Merseyside, England but Historic counties of England, historically in Lancashire. It is located north of Maghull, with which it has a commo ...

on 18 March 1878 the only son of Adolf Jonathan Gnosspelius. He was educated in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

and later was to study

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

at the

City and Guilds Central Technical College The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

. Between 1899 and 1902 he was an apprentice to civil engineer Sir Douglas Fox. After working at a quarry in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

he spent time in Transvaal and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

carrying out land surveys, by 1908 was in

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

working on a railway survey. In 1910 he had 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 ...

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, m ...

similar to the Bleriot XI and powered by a Alveston engine built by Borwick and Sons of Bowness-on-Windemere.Lewis 1962 , p. 272 This failed to fly, but a second floatplane built in 1911 was successfully flown on 13 February 1912. In 1911 he designed the

Lakes Waterhen The Lakes Water Bird, sometimes known as the ''Avro Curtiss-type,'' is remembered as the first consistently successful British seaplane, developed by the Windermere-based Lakes Flying Company, during 1911. Background Large bodies of water app ...

for the Lakes Flying School. During the first world war, he was commissioned in the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

, later

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and was employed on the inspection staff. Between 1918 and 1925 he worked in the test department at

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

for

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

the seaplane builders. During his time at Shorts he designed an

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

monoplane the

Gnosspelius Gull __NOTOC__ The Gnosspelius Gull was a 1920s British experimental ultra-light monoplane designed by Major O.T. Gnosspelius and built by Short Brothers at Rochester for the 1923 Lympne light aircraft trials.Jackson 1974, page 315 Development Gn ...

. In 1925 he married the artist and sculptor

Barbara Collingwood Barbara may refer to: People * Barbara (given name) * Barbara (painter) (1915–2002), pseudonym of Olga Biglieri, Italian futurist painter * Barbara (singer) (1930–1997), French singer * Barbara Popović (born 2000), also known mononymously ...

. She was the daughter of the author

W. G. Collingwood William Gershom Collingwood (; 6 August 1854, in Liverpool – 1 October 1932) was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading.Obituary in '' The Times'', ''Mr W.G. Collingwood'', ''Artist, Au ...

and her family's friend

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

, author of the ''Swallows and Amazons'' books, had proposed to her earlier. Following his marriage, Gnosspelius was involved in prospecting in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or '' fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

for

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

and other minerals. Ransome used the mining and prospecting knowledge of Oscar Gnosspelius featuring him in the 1936 book ''

Pigeon Post Pigeon post is the use of homing pigeons to carry messages. Pigeons are effective as messengers due to their natural homing abilities. The pigeons are transported to a destination in cages, where they are attached with messages, then the pigeo ...

'' as "Squashy Hat" and dedicated the book to him. His daughter modelled for a drawing of

Nancy Blackett Nancy Blackett is a fictional character in nine of the twelve juvenile novels in Arthur Ransome's ''Swallows and Amazons series'' of books. She acts as captain of the dinghy, ''Amazon'' and usually directing her friends in their various adventu ...

in the same book. Gnosspelius died on 17 February 1953 at

Coniston, Cumbria Coniston is a village and civil parish in the Furness region of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,058, decreasing at the 2011 census to 928. Historically part of Lancashire, it is in the southern part of the ...

Notes

References

* Barnes, C.H. ''Shorts Aircraft since 1900''. London, Putnam, 1967. * Lewis, Peter. ''British Aircraft 1809–1914''. London: Putnam, 1962.
''The 1913 Gnosspelius Hydro-biplane'' (page down to G)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gnosspelius, Oscar 1878 births 1953 deaths English aerospace engineers Royal Navy officers Royal Air Force officers Royal Air Force personnel of World War I Aviation pioneers People from Lydiate 20th-century British engineers