Claude Grahame-White

CLAUDE GRAHAME-WHITE d1959. English aviation pioneer who was one of the first people to qualify as a pilot in England becoming the holder of Royal Areo club license No6 awarded in April 1910. He was widely praised as the first man to make a night-flight during the 1910 Daily Mail London to Manchester air race. In 1911 he established a flying school at Hendon Aerodrome. In 1912, he gave HG Wells his first flight. The Aerodrome was lent to the Admiralty in 1916 and it was eventually taken over by the RAF in 1919. His aerodrome was purchased by the RAF in 1925 after a protracted legal struggle. After this he lost his interest in aviation, eventually moving to Nice in his old age, where he died aged 79 in 1959 having made a fortune in property development in the UK and US