GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY Crossing Africa
Having advanced to Squadron Leader, Hilton was posted for service with 216 Squadron (Vickers Victorias), Heliopolis, Egypt, in 1930. He commanded a flight from his unit which crossed Africa to Nigeria and West Africa, October - December 1933. They were engaged in the important task of planning and surveying the Khartoum - West Africa route, which eventually opened up as a regular commercial route in February 1936. Hilton had advanced to Wing Commander, and described the flight over Africa in a letter dated 19 December 1933:
‘We have had a good trip, lots of hard work, through very bad weather but have luckily been able to keep our programme in spite of sickness through Malaria and sunstroke. I have been a bit worried at times with the aircraft, you see I am entirely responsible and sometimes just after getting to bed a terrific thunderstorm and wind would get up at about 60 miles an hour called a Tornado, and it plays hell with the old aeroplanes, so I would have to spend the night out in the pouring rain looking after them.’
The King’s Cup air race - a fatal experience
Hilton returned to Martlesham Heath in January 1935, and took over the command of testing all new aircraft, ‘Wing Commander Hilton was considered one of the most brilliant of the R.A.F. pilots at Martlesham, where the newest aeroplanes are tested. He had had 6,000 hours’ flying experience. Recently he was appointed to the Air Ministry for service on the department of the Air Member for research and development. He had never flown in a King’s Cup air race. A few days ago he told a friend that he had entered out of curiosity. “I want to get experience and the general impression of what this round-the-country race is like,” he said. He recently flew an Airspeed Envoy to Capetown ‘for fun” and brought it back in almost record time. “It was just by accident that we flew back so quickly,” he said when he returned. Last year delay at Athens robbed him of the chance to break Amy Johnson’s Cape record.’ (Obituary refers)
Tragically for Hilton, his curiosity was to cost him his life. He crashed whilst piloting his aircraft in the King’s Cup air race over Scarborough, 10 September 1937. A local newspaper recorded the following details:
‘Wing Commander P. C. Sherren and Wing Commander E. G. Hilton, competitors in the King’s Cup air race, were killed here today before a crowd of about 1,000 people, who had gathered to watch the aeroplanes fly low over the Castle Hill turning point.
The pilots had to fly low in order that their machines could be identified, and all of them seemed to be troubled by the currents which were caused by a stiff northerly wind. The aeroplane which crashed took a different course from the others. Flying very close to the cliff-edge, the machine was travelling steadily when it was suddenly flung about 50ft upwards and one of the occupants [Sherren]] was catapulted through the air to disappear from sight over the edge of the cliff. The aeroplane then crashed to the ground and was smashed to pieces, killing the other occupant [Hilton].’
The Coroner’s report and results of the inquest into the accident provided further details, ‘The machine piloted by Wing Commander Hilton came down to about 150ft. at great speed, and then seemed to get into an air pocket and drop slightly and nose dive to the ground. At 9 o’clock on the morning of the race the wind was blowing at 25 mph, and later it increased to 35 miles. It was also very gusty. Other machines bumped in making the turn at the Castle Hill..... Wing Commander Sherren was thrown out of the machine, struck the edge of the cliff, and dropped 200ft. down the cliff. Hilton was picked up 20 yards from the wrecked machine, and a mackintosh was found on the telephone wires.’
Sold with a file of copied research, including a typed transcript titled Wing Commander E. G. Hilton, D.F.C., A.F.C. A Personal Account of some adventures from 1914-37. Extracts from his letters during that period arranged, with a few explanatory notes, in the form of a story for his son Richard; numerous photographic images of the recipient in uniform and a copy of the front page of the Daily Sketch, 11 September 1937, with an extraordinary photograph capturing the crash of Hilton’s aircraft in the King’s Cup race.
Sherren, flung from his aircraft, moments before it crashes with Hilton still at the controls.
www.dnw.co.uk
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