No hope: Locals inspect the wreckage of the air crash at Christmas, 1924
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Christmas Eve marks the centenary of what in 1924 was the worst air disaster in British history, when an aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Croydon Airport, killing everyone on board.
DAVID MORGAN has scoured the archives for contemporaneous reports to mark the grim anniversary
Exactly 100 years ago on Christmas Eve, an aeroplane crashed in Croydon.
It was the worst air disaster in the early years of British commercial aviation. The aircraft came down, shortly after takeoff on the Kingsdown Estate, between Kingsdown Avenue and Mount Park Avenue, killing the pilot and all seven passengers.
Still remembered: the plaque near the crash site in South Croydon
People in the vicinity of the crash rushed to the site to try to help but were beaten back by the intensity of the flames from the stricken aircraft, which will have been carrying a full load of fuel.
The aircraft was an Imperial Airways De Haviland 34 bound for Paris. It was, in effect, a mail-carrying taxi service between two capital cities. Capable of carrying nine passengers, the aircraft was three years old and had crossed the Channel on numerous occasions to Paris and to Amsterdam.
On that fateful day, December 24, 1924, 12 passengers had booked to fly to Paris, so a second flight had been arranged to cater for the additional numbers. The pilot, David Stewart, who lived in Wallington, was an experienced flyer – he’d been a fighter ace during the First World War, when he was was noted for his daring at flying low over enemy lines.
In a military career that had begun in 1917, Stewart served first in the Royal Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force, and was promoted to the rank of temporary captain, after being credited with downing three enemy aeroplanes and awarded the Military Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Force Cross.
It was five minutes after midday on Christmas Eve when Capt Stewart MC took off for one final time. Stewart was aged 32.
His De Haviland passed over the Croydon Airport control tower before heading out on its usual course for the coast.
Malfunctions with the engine started almost immediately.
Eye witnesses said they heard the plane’s engine sounding rough. Mr Belcher, a local resident, said, “The engine of the aeroplane was making a great row.
“The plane turned and went back towards the aerodrome.”
Fighter ace: Capt David Stewart MC, the pilot of the crashed aircraft
Before passing out of sight, black smoke could be seen belching out of the stricken aircraft.
Mr Belcher saw it all. “Then it came across a second time and had just got over a chalk pit at the foot of Castle Hill when it turned, and as it did so, up went the tail and the machine nose-dived into the ground.”
The doomed flight was seen by some witnesses to be flying so low that it avoided crashing into a Brighton-bound railway train by only a few feet.
Newspaper reports described the aircraft, flying at 300 feet, as “being caught by a great gust of wind. Before the pilot had a chance to right his craft, it crashed to the ground”.
The aircraft had travelled barely 1½ miles, coming down on fields that were being developed for housing.
Another eye witness, who watched the plane through binoculars, confirmed that it seemed to be in difficulty right from the beginning of the flight. When commercial flying was in its infancy in 1924, there would have been many residents who were “plane spotters”, knowing the timetables and looking out at the comings and goings of the airfield.
The tragic loss of life affected many people.
Three members of the Sproston family died in the crash: Archie, 39, his French wife, Marie, 21, and Archie’s father, George, 76. The Sprostons were flying to Paris to spend Christmas with Marie’s family. The return flight tickets will have cost around £12 each, about £800 in today’s money.
Archie Sproston was a well-known name in the motoring world. He was director and secretary of WH Elce and Co, motor agents of Bishopsgate Avenue, London. He was a prominent sports car racer and had an entry for the Morgan Trial Race to be run from London to Exeter on Boxing Day.
Headline news: how the crash was reported in 1924
Before sports cars, he raced motorbikes. In 1908 Sproston took part in the London to Edinburgh motorcycle ride. He was a competitor for four years in the Isle of Man TT races. His best finish in a Senior TT was 18th in 1909, riding a Rex, his last TT being in 1914.
In the early days of World War I, Sproston signed up for military service. He swopped his racing bike for army issue and was made a dispatch rider for Field Marshall Sir John French. Many hectic and dangerous missions were successfully undertaken. Sproston survived these experiences and wrote about them in a book, Four Months Under Fire – a diary by Corporal AJ Sproston.
Sproston also served in Mesopotamia, again as a dispatch rider.
Another of the passengers killed in the crash was Dr Plinio Barbosa Lima, 32, who had just been staying at the Strand Palace Hotel in London. He was on a short trip to Europe on behalf of the Brazilian government. He had been staying a week in London and planned to travel on to Switzerland from Paris.
Another South American perished in the crash. Cedric Trudgett, a 21-year-old journalist from the Chilean Review, who was planning to write a travel piece about the flight.
Annie Bailey also died in the crash. A visitor from Australia, she was 64 years old and staying in a boarding house in Wellesley Road, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. She was travelling to Paris to stay with her daughter over Christmas.
Maurice Luxemberg, described as an 18-year-old trainee solicitor, was the eighth and final victim.
Commercial endorsement: Archie Sproston’s trench warfare book was used to promote cooking ingredients in the 1920s
He had not long joined Goldman and Sons. Mr Goldman, a partner in the law firm, said that not only had he lost a brilliant young man with a fine future ahead of him, but someone who was a personal friend. Luxemberg was travelling to Paris to spend Christmas with his uncle.
A Coroner’s inquest was convened on December 29, and the following month it was announced that there would be a public inquiry.
The legal team acting for the families of the deceased argued that the cause of the crash had been due to engine trouble that had been apparent up for to five days before the tragedy. They also alleged that an attempt had been made by Imperial Airways to tamper with a witness. The coroner dismissed the accusation.
Goldman and Sons Solicitors were instrumental in challenging Imperial Airways about their version of events.
One witness, pilot Captain Hinchcliffe, claimed at the hearing that on the morning of the crash he flew the aircraft back to Croydon from Lympne, in Kent, and the oil pressure on the engine was low. He reported this to Mr Hall, the mechanical superintendent in the aerodrome workshop, who said that the engine would be overhauled before it was taken out again.
Another pilot, Captain Barnard, who was due to fly the additional Paris flight, also gave evidence. In some terse exchanges in the witness box, he stated that the Air Ministry control tower at the aerodrome was in the wrong place.
When further questioned about whether he had reported this he replied: “If I were to report everything I found wrong to the Air Ministry I should soon lose my job.”
The public inquiry opened on January 23, 1925 at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand. This was the first public inquiry into a civil aviation accident in Britain. It was chaired by Sir Arthur Colefax, with Professor BM Jones and James Swinburne as assessors. They would hear a significant amount of criticism of Imperial Airways, of the company’s maintenance engineering operation, and of Croydon Aerodrome.
A pipe in the engine was found to be partially blocked when it was examined after the crash, but the conclusion of the inquiry was that the blockage occurred because of the fire.
Inquiry coverage: it was the first public inquiry into an air accident in Britain
Major Cooper, an Inspector of Accidents to the Air Ministry, expressed his opinion that there was no mechanical defect contributing to the crash.
The aircraft, it was determined, must have had full engine power to take off in the first place. If something went wrong in the air it was a different fault to the one which was reported to the engineer. The plane stalled in turning and this resulted in its failure to keep in the air.
No blame was attached to the pilot who was an experienced flyer.
Some criticism was made about the state of the airfield. After the inquest, an Act of Parliament was passed to have Croydon Airport expanded, allowing it to have longer runways.
Croydon Airport had the world’s first airport control tower and first passenger terminal building (both remain today, and can be visited). It remained Britain’s principal airport until the late 1930s, when it was requisitioned as an RAF fighter base.
It resumed commercial activities after 1945, but could not be further expanded and the title of “London Airport” passed to Heathrow to the west of the capital.
Croydon Airport closed in 1959.
The Croydon Airport Society has worked on the history of the airport, and in 2006 they helped have a plaque installed on Kingsdown Avenue, as a memorial to the people who died on that fateful Christmas Eve, 100 years ago.
David Morgan, pictured right, is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Broderick’s Minster visit revives memories of master musician
- Ghostly convocation that is hardly a good omen for the Palace
- Murder mystery lingers around crimes of the Borough Poisoner
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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We want more Morgan! Great piece, thanks.