Charles Samson

Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson, (8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931) was a British naval aviation pioneer. He was one of the first four officers selected for pilot training by the Royal Navy and was the first person to fly an aircraft from a moving ship. He also commanded the first British armoured vehicles used in combat. Transferring to the Royal Air Force on its creation in 1918, Samson held command of several groups in the immediate post-war period and the 1920s.

Early life

Samson was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, on 8 July 1883, the son of Charles Leopold Samson, a solicitor, and his wife Margaret Alice (née Rumney). 1891 Census of Salford, RG12/3214, Folio 160, Page 27, Charles R Samson, Carmona, Cavendish Road, Broughton, Salford.

Early naval career

Samson entered HMS ''Britannia'' as a cadet in 1896, before becoming a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1898. In the 1901 Census he is listed as a midshipman aboard the battleship HMS ''Victorious''. He was promoted Sub-Lieutenant in 1902 and the following year served on HMS ''Pomone'' in the Persian Gulf and Somaliland. He was promoted to lieutenant on 30 September 1904 while serving as an officer on boys' training ships.

In 1906 Samson was appointed Officer Commanding of Torpedo Boat No. 81 and in February 1908 he was posted to HMS ''Commonwealth''. The following year he was appointed first lieutenant on HMS ''Philomel'' serving in the Persian Gulf and in the autumn of 1910 he transferred to HMS ''Foresight'', again serving as the ship's First Lieutenant.

Naval aviation

In 1911 he was selected as one of the first four Royal Navy officers to receive pilot training, and obtained his Royal Aero Club certificate on 25 April 1911, after only 71 minutes flying time, at a RAeC meeting that also awarded licences to the pioneer naval aviators Wilfred Parke and Arthur Longmore. He completed flying training at Eastchurch before being appointed Officer Commanding Naval Air Station Eastchurch in October 1911. In January 1912 he was promoted to acting Commander. The following April he was appointed Officer Commanding the Naval Flying School at Eastchurch.

Samson took part in several early naval aviation experiments, including the development of navigation lights and bomb sights. He was the first British pilot to take off from a ship, on 10 January 1912, flying a Short Improved S.27 from a ramp mounted on the foredeck of the battleship HMS ''Africa'', which was at anchor in the river Medway. On 9 May 1912 he became the first pilot to take off from a moving ship, using the same ramp and aircraft, now fitted to the battleship HMS ''Hibernia'' during the 1912 Naval Review in Weymouth Bay. He repeated the feat on 4 July 1912, this time from the battleship HMS ''London'' while ''London'' was under way.

When the Royal Flying Corps was formed in May 1912 Samson took command of its Naval Wing, and led the development of aerial wireless communications, bomb and torpedo-dropping, navigational techniques, and night flying.

In 1914 the Royal Navy separated the Naval Wing from the Royal Flying Corps, naming it the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). In July Samson was appointed Officer Commanding the Eastchurch (Mobile) Squadron which was renamed No. 3 Squadron RNAS by September 1914.

In 1914, while Samson was in command of the Royal Naval Air Station at Eastchurch, he led a flight in the Naval Review at Spithead. In an effort to increase the popularity of flying in the navy, Samson had his pilots offer rides to anyone who was interested.

First World War

When the First World War broke out, Samson took the Eastchurch RNAS Squadron to France, where it supported Allied ground forces along the French and Belgian frontiers. In the late summer of 1914, with too few aircraft at his disposal, Samson instead had his men patrol the French and Belgian countryside in the privately owned cars some of them had taken to war. The first patrol comprised two cars, nine men, and one machine gun. Inspired by the success of the Belgians' experience of armoured cars, Samson had two RNAS cars, a Mercedes and a Rolls-Royce, armoured. These vehicles had only partial protection, with a single machine gun firing backwards, and were the first British armoured vehicles to see action. Within a month most of Samson's cars had been armed and some armoured. These were joined by further cars which had been armoured in Britain with hardened steel plates at Royal Navy workshops. The force was also equipped with some trucks which had been armoured and equipped with loopholes so that the Royal Marines carried in them could fire their rifles in safety. This was the start of the RNAS Armoured Car Section.

Aggressive patrolling by Samson's improvised force in the area between Dunkirk

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