The B.A.C. VII “Barbara Cartland” must be BGA 186, which was registered to National Flying Services in June 1931 (it was towed by NFS Moth G-AAPA, with the tow hook attached to a long boom mounted above the tail). It was wrecked when it was blown over on landing at Ditchling Beacon on 3.8.31, but was rebuilt as BGA 194 for the Southern Counties Soaring Club in Oct. 1931. The club became the Southdown Gliding Club in March 1932 and the B.A.C. VII was apparently still in use in 1939. However, BGA 194 is also reported as being motorised as “Planette No.1” in 1932, and was the aircraft in which C H Lowe-Wylde crashed fatally at Maidstone Airport (West Malling) on 13.5.33.

The proprietor of B.A.C. seems to have gone through several changes of name. Born Thomas Harold Lowe in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1901, he married Dorothy E Wilde in 1924, hence becoming T H Lowe-Wilde. By 1930 he had become Charles Herbert Lowe-Wylde, but popularly known as “Jimmy” after a boxer of similar name. . .