Dave Southwood (left) with Paul Beaver (Gareth Tarr).
The second speaker was Paul Beaver who is
currently compiling Captain Brown’s official biography. He started by reminding us of some of Winkle’s many, diverse experiences, including visiting the 1936 Berlin Olympics, surviving his ship being sunk by a U-boat, seeing the first jet flight, identifying Himmler (who he met before World War Two) and interrogating Goering. Then there was liberating the Bergen- Belsen concentration camp, 4,678 landings and take-offs from aircraft carriers and more recently being invited to visit the Airbus A380 in testing.
Starting life in the Scottish Borders, Eric Brown clearly had a hankering for risky stunts and led a charmed life. In 1937 he rode a Norton 250 on a ‘Wall of Death’ with a lion to raise funds for flying. His first solo flight was on 11th September 1938 in a De Havilland. When World War Two started on 3rd September 1939 Eric was still in Germany and was arrested by the Gestapo who interrogated him for three days, after which they drove him and his MG to the Swiss border and let him go. He joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1940. Having spotted a girl he fancied he decided to impress her by flying past her classroom window but hadn’t noticed the posts on the rugby pitch which he therefore hit, losing control and crash- ing into a church. He was grounded for two weeks, a time he spent courting Evelyn who was to become his wife. Flying under bridges was one of Eric’s favourite stunts which got him in bother more than once, but is perhaps a testament to his great skill. During the mid-war period he was involved in a lot of test flights, famously being the first pilot to land a Mosquito on an aircraft-carrier.
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Its stall speed was just over 110mph but the ship’s landing cables could only take up to 88mph – he got it down at 79mph! He was also the first person to land a Venom jet on the deck of a carrier.
Captain Eric Brown’s flying skills were confirmed by the final speaker, test pilot Dave Southwood, who described his friend as a fantas- tic pilot with great judgement. As an example he explained that US pilots were having difficulty landing Corsairs on ships but the Fleet Air Arm developed a different technique. A photo of three Wildcats escorting Churchill with the lead plane (piloted by Captain Brown) flying upside down confirmed that mischievous side. Both Eric and Dave didn’t rate the Messerschmitt ME109 which they described as being difficult to handle on the ground but Eric did like the Phantom, although it was almost too big for Ark Royal.
Dave Southwood also explained how aviation has changed since Winkle’s day, with much more regulation. People no longer think how to apply regulations by making judgements and decisions, now it’s much more assurance and risk assess- ment. How many of us have experienced similar changes in our daily working life?
Why was Captain Brown nicknamed ‘Winkle’? It is suggested this was a reference to his size, being a shortening of ‘periwinkle’, whilst Ian Whittle (son of Sir Frank) maintains that in this period anyone called Brown was usually nick- named Winkle. No doubt this and many stories will be revealed in Paul Beaver’s eagerly awaited biography due next year. Meanwhile those of us who saw Captain Brown speak on either of his visits to Brooklands will remember the event for a long time. A quiet man who was long on achievement and a true hero.
Gareth Tarr
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