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'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

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 counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

in southeast London on 3 April 1879, the son of Richard Barnwell, a director of the Clyde shipbuilder Fairfield. Barnwell was brought up at Elcho House in Balfron,

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling ( ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.Registers of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. It borders Perthshir ...

, and educated at Fettes College in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He had a younger brother, Frank. Frank and Harold Barnwell built their first glider 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 (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

. 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 A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

was successfully flown from a field in Causewayhead under the Wallace Monument 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. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

's first powered flight. 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 wings. 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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

school at Brooklands 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 win his £50 bet with

Frederick Handley Page Sir Frederick Handley Page (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, Handley Page Limited wa ...

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-opera ...

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.

Death, memorial and legacy

Harold Barnwell died on 25 August 1917 while test flying the prototype Vickers Vampire 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, 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 A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

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 Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, formerly The Smith Institute, is an art and local history museum in Stirling, Scotland. The museum was founded in 1874 at the bequest of artist Thomas Stuart Smith. History Founding Thomas Stuart Sm ...

Life

Death, memorial and legacy

References

Further reading