Thomas Sopwith | |
|---|---|
 Sopwith in 1911 | |
| Born | Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith (1888-01-18)18 January 1888 Kensington,London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 27 January 1989(1989-01-27) (aged 101) Hampshire, United Kingdom |
| Resting place | Little Somborne, United Kingdom |
| Occupation(s) | Aviator and businessman |
| Years active | 1910–1980 |
| Organizations | |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Thomas E.B. Sopwith |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing United Kingdom | ||
| Men'sice hockey | ||
| European Championships | ||
 | 1910 | Great Britain |
Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith,CBE, HonFRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was a Britishaviation pioneer, businessman andyachtsman.
Sopwith was born inKensington, London, on 18 January 1888. He was the eighth child and only son of Thomas Sopwith (a civil engineer and managing director of the Spanish Lead Mines Company inLinares, Jaén, Spain) and his wife, Lydia Gertrude Messiter.[1] He was a grandson of mining engineerThomas Sopwith.[2] He was educated atCottesmore School inHove and at Seafield Park engineering college inHill Head.[3]
On 30 July 1898, when he was ten years old and on a family holiday at theIsle of Lismore nearOban in Scotland, a gun lying across young Thomas's knee went off, killing his father. This accident haunted Sopwith for the rest of his life.[1]
Sopwith was interested in motor cycles, and he took part in the 100-mile Tricar trial in 1904, where he was one of four medal winners.[4] He also tried ballooning, his first ascent being inC.S. Rolls' balloon in June 1906.[5] Together with Phil Paddon, he bought his own balloon fromShort Brothers.[5] For a while, he was in business with Phil Paddon selling automobiles as Paddon & Sopwith onAlbemarle Street inPiccadilly, London.[5]
In his youth, he was an expertice skater and played ingoal during thePrinces Ice Hockey Club's 1908 match with C.P.P. Paris and during the 1909–10 season.[6] He was also a member of theGreat Britain national ice hockey team that won the gold medal at the firstEuropean Championshipsin 1910.[7]
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Sopwith became interested in flying after seeingJohn Moisant flying the first cross-Channel passenger flight. His first flight was withGustave Blondeau in aFarman atBrooklands. He soon taught himself to fly on aHoward Wright Avis monoplane and took to the air on his own for the first time on 22 October 1910. He crashed after travelling about 300 yards (275 m), but soon improved, and on 22 November was awardedRoyal Aero Club Aviation Certificate No. 31, flying aHoward Wright 1910 Biplane.
On 18 December 1910, Sopwith won the £4000Baron de Forest Prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British-built aeroplane, flying 169 miles (272 km) in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands.
On 28 June 1911, as theRMS Olympic was leavingNew York City on her eastbound maiden voyage, Sopwith flew up to the Olympic, intending to drop a package of last minute supplies destined for passengerWashington Atlee Burpee.[8] However, the package narrowly missed the deck, falling into the Hudson River.[9]
In June 1912, Sopwith, along with Fred Sigrist and others, set up theSopwith Aviation Company, initially at Brooklands.[10] On 24 October 1912 using aWright Model B completely rebuilt by Sopwith and fitted with anABC 40 hp engine,[11]Harry Hawker took the British Michelin Endurance prize with a flight of 8h 23m.
Sopwith Aviation got its first military aircraft order in November 1912, and in December moved to larger premises in Canbury Park Road,Kingston upon Thames. The site of the factory is now a private gated housing estate. A small section of the original building still exists at the junction of Elm Crescent and Canbury Park Road; white painted bay windows can be seen extending from the building to allow as much light as possible to enter the large room in which Sopwith made blueprints for his aircraft designs.
The company produced more than 18,000 World War I aircraft for the allied forces, including 5747 of theSopwith Camel single-seat fighter. Sopwith was awarded theCBE in 1918.
Bankrupted after the war by punitive anti-profiteering taxes and a failed venture into motorcycle manufacturing, he re-entered the aviation business in 1920 with a new firm named after his chief engineer and test pilot, Harry Hawker. Sopwith became chairman of the new firm,Hawker Aircraft.
He became aKnight Bachelor in 1953. After the nationalisation in 1977 of the aviation interests of what was by thenHawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant to the company until 1980.
In 1979, Sopwith was inducted into theInternational Air & Space Hall of Fame at theSan Diego Air & Space Museum.[12] He was a member of theAir Squadron flying club.
Sopwith challenged theAmerica's Cup with hisJ-class yachts,Endeavour, in 1934, and withEndeavour II in 1937. Both yachts were designed byCharles E. Nicholson. Sopwith funded, organised and helmed the yachts. He did not win the Cup but he became a Cup legend by nearly winning it in 1934. He was inducted into theAmerica's Cup Hall of Fame in 1995.
In 1927 Sopwith commissioned yacht buildersCamper and Nicholsons to build a luxury motor yacht he namedVita. She was sold in 1929 toSir John Shelley-Rolls who renamed herAlastor.[13] DuringWorld War II theRoyal Navy commandeered her to ferry provisions to Navy vessels moored at the entrance toStrangford Lough. In 1946 a fire gutted her and she sank inRinghaddy Sound in Strangford Lough.[14]
In 1937 Sopwith received the yachtPhilante, also built for him by Camper and Nicholsons. In theSecond World War the ship was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and used as a convoy escort vessel, HMSPhilante. After the war the vessel was returned to Sopwith and he sold her to Norway in 1947, to become the royal yacht of theKing of Norway.
Sopwith married Beatrice Hore-Ruthven (1871–1930) in 1914, but they had no children. Beatrice was the daughter of Walter Hore-Ruthven, who was createdBaron Ruthven of Gowrie in 1919. After Beatrice's death, he married Phyllis Brodie Gordon (1892–1978) in 1932. Their son,Thomas Edward Brodie Sopwith, had success in car racing.
Sopwith's house inMayfair at No. 46Green Street, where he lived from 1934 until 1940, has ablue plaque.[15] In 1940, he moved toWarfield Hall in Berkshire, which he had acquired the previous year.[16]
Sopwith's 100th birthday was marked by aflypast of military aircraft over his home, Compton Manor inKing's Somborne, Hampshire.[citation needed] He died in Hampshire on 27 January 1989, nine days after his 101st birthday. His grave and that of his second wife (Phyllis Brodie) are in the churchyard ofAll Saints Church, Little Somborne, nearWinchester.
His authorised biography isPure Luck (2005) by Alan Bramson, with a foreword by thePrince of Wales (ISBN 1-85260-263-5). Sir Thomas was interviewed on 8 November 1978 by the art historian Anna Malinovska; the interview is reproduced inVoices in Flight, 2006.[citation needed]
A bronze bust of Sopwith was unveiled by his son at Kingston Library, London, on 26 September 2014. The sculptor was Ambrose Barber, a former executive of Hawker. Earlier in the same year, a plaque was unveiled atCanbury Gardens inKingston upon Thames by Sopwith's son to commemorate the Sopwith aviation company.[17]
Sopwith Way in Kingston upon Thames was named after Thomas Sopwith. Sopwith Road, one of the roads built on the site of the formerHeston Aerodrome, is also named after him. Sopwith Road in Warfield (Bracknell, Berkshire), located close to his former home Warfield Hall and the location of the newly built Woodhurst school (part of Warfield CE Primary School), is also named after him.
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