I am trying to verify whether a family legend has a basis in fact or is just a romantic tale. My great-great uncle was a Customs Officer who apparently welcomed Louis Blériot to this country and logged in the aeroplane as a private yacht, this being the nearest classification he could come up with.
I have the name of my relative and would like to know if indeed he was present at such an auspicious occasion - would his name be on record and would that record still exist?
Many thanks, GP (very tenuous links to the aviation world, but proud owner of a BOAC Junior Jet Club log, badge and metal tin which held all sorts of goodies)
Sorry, cannot help you, but I can say that my own Great Grandfather is the Police Sergeant in the centre of this famous picture of Louis Blériot's arrival on the hills outside Dover..... Maybe your relative is in this picture also.
I have a Silver Bromide print from the original negative......pm me for the source..
Many thanks for posting the photo, Corsairoz. Have pm'd you for the source. Terrific moustaches on display! There are a couple of candidates for Customs Officer, but not the chap in the plaid coat, though...
The story about the officer taking the declaration as a yacht is certainly in several Customs (history) books and my memory is that the officer had to do some explaining to the Board (of Customs - ie HQ) thereafter. Pretty sure there is a photo of the declaration in the Customs museum display in Liverpool. The old Customs HQ in London definitely had a photo of it on the walls, along with Robbie Burns' staff report and other 'gems'
Good improvisation or more likely that was the only form he had in his bag!
As far as I can work out there are a number of Officers at various grades involved with Bleriot's landing at Dover.
Mr Camburn was the Preventive Officer first on the scene who interviewed Bleriot and issued him with a quarantine certificate, thus setting a precedent by treating the aircraft as a yacht/vessel and the pilot as master and owner. Also present was J.M. Johnson.
The Preventive Officers reported up the chain to the Surveyor of Dover Customs who then reported to the Collector of Dover Customs, a Mr Williams. The Collector in turn reported to the London based Board of Customs Commissioners on the 25th July that Bleriot had landed two miles from the Customs watch house at 05:00 that morning after having taken 33 minutes in crossing from France. The Collector commented that at 06:30 he had visited the scene and engaged a bystander in conversation about the future usefulness of aircraft, as a result of this conversation the Collector suggested to his superiors that Customs may soon have to take the arrival of aircraft seriously if revenue interest were not to suffer.
If the original paperwork survives there are two possible places where it might be, either Custom House London or the Customs Museum at the Albert Dock in Liverpool. I think the best place to start a search for the documents would be by contacting the curator at Liverpool.
Terrific! Thank you for your replies, everyone - the first port of call is the Customs Museum, L'pool.
Akrotiri - I have discovered that my g-g uncle was in fact my g-g grandfather, whose name was Peter Masterman Johnson, which fits (almost) with your information, and listed as an Officer of Customs and Excise. Good thing they took this new-fangled contraption seriously...
No mention of any names, but...this from FLIGHT Magazine in their 1909 report on the flight:
Bleriot and the Customs The Customs officers, who were among the very few actual spectators of the arrival of M. Bleriot on the English coast, were very properly among the first to accost the pilot after his unconventional descent on British soil. With fitting forbearance, however, they recognised that it was only "one of those flying-men," and therefore made no attempt at an inspection for contraband.
Last edited by Corsairoz : 12th January 2009 at 17:23.
Great to see that pic again as my Granma had one of those original photographs hanging on her wall over 75 years ago (or maybe more years than I remember) & I grew up looking admiringly at it. I am now 80 & would have loved to have kept that picture, but sadly it was lost when she died in 1946 & I was in the RAF.
My father, who has just turned 84, has long told me of my great grandfather George Thomas Camburn being one of the customs officers that met Louis Bleriot at Dover. Only yesterday he was telling me to look out for photographs in the national newspapers on the centenary of the landing (25th July). A quick google on Bleriot led me to this website where I was amazed to see this thread. I would love to get hold of a copy of the photograph for my father, Is anyone able to help me?
I'm wondering why M. Bleriot appeared to park his aerial carriage on some grass banking, when there appears to be a very nice, flat runway-like area in the background.
