French aircraft crash, 1935

Hi Dave,
A copy of The Flyers available on ebay # 200244982439 only £5.99. Also via Abe Books online store.

Well worth getting, contains a 10 page chapter on the man. Along with detail of other slightly ‘dodgy’ pilots from the same era.

If all else fails dare say I could bung you a scan of the relevant pages.

Chumpy.

Hi Chumpy,

Thanks, I’m aware of the existence of that book but have not yet managed to track down a copy.

The small mercenary air force he tried to raise in Britain to join in the fight in the-then Abyssinia was curtailed when one of the pilots in his group went to the press and talked about the venture. I wonder if there are any online British newspapers that might be searchable for that article? Or others on Griffiths.

The three aeroplanes he was contracted to fly to Spain (apparently by Douglas Aircraft UK Ltd) were as I understand it all delivered, and when he arrived with the third aircraft, he realised the gravity of the Civil War and when offered a job with the Loyalist Air Force he joined up. He flew Nieuport 26’s in combat, escorting bombers, and claimed seven aircraft destroyed though the authorities only credited him with four (which he received 200 pounds each for as bounty). He was then attacked on an escort mission by five Italian Fiats and his wingman was killed, Eric receiving a bullet through the shoulder. He flew home to base and was hospitalised. He then went to a Spanish flying school as an instructor and eventually took three months leave to come hom to NZ to marry fay Robinson, his fiance’. He decided not to return to Spain and resigned, not a bad move, of the 20 men he started with in his squadron, only two survived by then.

Quite a good ‘biog’ of the guy in the book The Flyers by Brian Bridgeman, alas no mention of a crash in France in 35.

As you mentioned an adventurer to say the least!..On arrival in the UK in 35involved in a scheme to acquire surplus RAF Bristol Fighters and establish an airforce in Ethiopia to counter Italian ambitions in the region.

Thence a spell in the British Army before his Spanish civil war service, prior to this mention is made of him being involved in the shipment of British civil aircraft to Spain. So possibly the crash relates to these activities.

Chumpy.

I’m afraid I don’t have any more and do not know if it was a French or a British aeroplane. It is just mentioned in a few short biographies that after a crash of a private plane in France he became ground staff with imperial Airways (not sure if that was in france or Britain either). Griffiths was a flyer of fortune, an amazing career – his flying career took him to places like China, Antarctica, Britain, France, Spanish Civil War and Fiji where he was killed. He was a genuine ‘Boys Own Adventure’ character.

Not that I’m aware of. You could contact the DGCA and ask the question there. If you are interested, send me a PM and I’ll dig the contact details out for you. However it seems unlikely that any pre-war database will be searchable using only the pilot’s name. I don’t think even the present DGCA databases are set up to permit that. Do you not have any more information copncerning the crash?