Grave of Schneider Trophy Winner Henry Waghorn AFC
 

Waghorn AFC - The AUTOSPORT Bulletin Board

The link above should take you to an article which has photos of the grave of Henry Waghorn AFC who won the Schneider Trophy race in 1929.

Does anyone know if the grave is still in the sorry state shown in the photos (which are from 2009 I believe)?

Does anyone live in the area or would anyone be prepared to tidy up the grave and give Henry Waghorn the respect he deserves?

I am in Melbourne, Orstralia so just a little too far away to do anything at the moment. :)

No replies yet Ian...have you tried posting it on Key Historic ?you might get a better response there.

rgds LR

Ian

Sorry to say grave site is no better a state from those 2009 pics.

I'm very local and was stunned to find such aeroautical history on my doorstep. I was doing a local history search and came across the Autosport forum.

The good news is that next week the local Beaver Scouts (my lad included) are going to help tidy up the graveyard. It is part of a general rehabilitation of this old graveyard. My wife is helping out too ( I'm working :cool:) and she has instructions to do what she can for Flt Lt Waghorn. I have printed off the Autosport article so the rest of the group understand the importance. It should catch their interest to he Beaver Scouts as they visited FAST (Farnbourgh Air Science Trust) last week.

Will try and post some newer pics.

T'bug

Thank you Thunderbug, and please pass on my thanks to your wife and the Beaver Scouts.

I gather the grave does not qualify as a war grave but that does not lessen the respect that Waghorn deserves. I am extremely happy that someone has helped with this.

Does anyone know if there are any living relatives?

Thank you again for all who have offered assistance. :)

On my Helicopter Specialist Pilot Course at RNAS Culdrose in 1964 was a Dave Waghorn. My memory from 48 years ago is not infallible but I'm fairly sure the word was that he was related to "one of the Schneider Trophy team".

After getting his Wings Dave chose not to continue with the Advanced Flying Training Course and I never heard of him again. All this about him being a relation could of course be a red herring and completely untrue - I just don't know.

Photo of Dave below, taken at the beginning of the course at Culdrose in Summer 1964:
http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/...aveWaghorn.jpg

Thanks CharlieOneSix, I wondered if surviving family (if any) were aware of the state of the grave.

Does anyone know if the RAF would do anything about the grave if they were made aware of its state? :)

Any update on whether the scouts cleaned up the grave of Henry Waghorn? Or is there someone in the area who can help?

Maybe....
 

Ian

I stumbled over this thread a few weeks ago and discussed it with an old friend who works at Boscombe Down. He was able to confirm that the Eagle is still there. More importantly and in a follow up to your penultimate post, I suspect that the RAF would currently find it difficult to do something about the grave in Farnborough. However, why not get in touch with the local Air Training Corps Sqn. Such units are always looking for relevant projects that increase their public profile and potentially improve recruitment. The Sqn in Farnborough is:

457 (Farnborough) Squadron,
Air Training Corps
St Christophers Road
Farnborough
Hampshire
GU14 0AH

with e-mail: http://www.air-cadets-squadron-finde...ning-corps-atc

Thank you for your help. Very much appreciated. I will get in contact and see what happens. Thanks again.

I've done a little digging around various genealogical sites and found the following....

Henry Richard Danvers Waghorn (HRDW) born 6 Sept 1904.

In 1911 he was living in St Leonards on Sea, with his mother, an aunt, and a younger brother (David John Waghorn).
His father was John Danvers Waghorn, who died in Switzerland in August 1908.

HRDW married Mary Helen Dymock Watson in Jun 1929, and they had a son (John D D Waghorn) who was born in 1930.

As we are aware from the original posts, HRDW died in May 1931 aged 27.

His wife apparently never re-married, and she died in 1980 in St Austell, Cornwall.


HRDWs brother David seems to have joined the RAF (probably in the 1930s?) and by the end of WW2 he was an Air Commodore. He was killed in a flying accident at/near RAF Benson in 1945.

HRDWs son (John D D Waghorn) married in 1958, and he died in July 2011.
There is a son (at least) from that marriage, butwe're now getting into the area of people who are still alive, so I don't want to be giving away too much info.

There is another (better?) pic of HRDW at King's Cup Aviators - T-Z and search for surnames beginning with 'W'.

I am working occasionally at Solent Sky Aviation Museum in Southampton.

Last October I was honoured to be a little involved in the 75th Anniversary of the Schneider race victory when we (the Museum) took our Supermarine S6A to its old home in Calshot.

There we had a hangar with Schneider artifacts, models and the aircraft herself. A special time and a fitting recognition. In the month we had around 3,000 people visit.

As recognition of the event, at the opening ceremony some representatives of the families of those involved were present, as were some of the direct descendants. As a previous posted has rightly said, I will not put any personal details here.

The end story, and the reason I am posting here, is that the museum was delighted to have been presented, on that day, with some artifacts from P/O Waghorn by his family. These included his flying goggles and helmet as worn in the races, his Sword of Honour certificate from Royal Air Force Cadet College, and the Sword itself. The label is from the Sword's leather case.

I thought you might like to see pictures I took on the day of the items. These were taken by me, and have my copyright, so please do not use them elsewhere commerically, but I am happy to put them on here.

The Schneider dedicated section of the Museum is currently being reconstructed and should be open before year end.

C

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...z/IMG_1866.jpghttp://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...z/IMG_1862.jpghttp://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...z/IMG_1792.jpghttp://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...z/IMG_1870.jpg

Thanks for sharing Corsairoz. Magnificent.

Any update on the state of Henry Waghorn's grave? Was it cleaned up? Would someone who lives in the area be able to photograph the grave and share the photo with us please. Thanks folks. Regards, Ian from Oz. :)

Update? Anyone?

Not an update, I'm afraid, but I've just been looking on Google Earth. There doesn't seem to be any churchyard left, although a grassed area some 80m to the north of the church may be the remains of it. It would seem that the land has been redeveloped. However, now that the thread is up again, perhaps someone can update you.

Herod, The churchyard is to the South side of the church and Vicarage Hill and still shows up on Streetview. I grew up in The Bourne, and will be back in the area next weekend, so will take a look and hopefully a photo too.

Here's a link to a picture of the churchyard entrance:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.20...F1bw!2e0?hl=en

Reading this thread I suddenly remembered that there is a statute of Thomas Fletcher Waghorn in Chatham, Kent:

Thomas Fletcher Waghorn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Perhaps related. The statute often sports a traffic cone perched on its head at a jaunty angle.

A couple of years ago I took my Dad to the excellent Solent Sky Museum where we were allowed up to the flight deck of their Short Sandringham. Later I drove him to Calshot and saw the old hangars and names. Dad had gone with his family one year to watch the speed record runs, but we do not know which year.

Thank you for the information folks. Look forward to hearing more after your visit.:)

On a similar note, there is a memorial window over the entrance to what is now Harrow High School, but in the good old days was Harrow County School for Boys, commemorating the feat of the then Flt Lt John Boothman in winning the Schneider Trophy for Britain in 1931. He ended up a knight and an Air Chief Marshal.

You're welcome Ian,

Here are a couple more links which give a fairly recent idea of the condition of the graveyard.

The second link contains further links (under 'material available') which allow you to determine which is Flt Lt Waghorn's grave:

Bourne Conservation Group's Website


Bourne Conservation Group's Website

Deviating slightly from the thread, here is a silent video of the 1929 race:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/br.../query/waghorn

and close ups of the S6:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/35...miles-per-hour

and here is a photo of the funeral procession:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafmusic/rafcm...BE3973600F.jpg