George Barnes: The First Englishman to Build and Fly His Own Plane

For the first 10-11 years of the 20^th Century George Barnes was first a racing cyclist, then motorcyclist, before becoming one of the early aviators. Renowned both in the UK and on the continent, especially in France where he was known as “The English Cannonball”, he held many records for cycling and especially motorcycle racing. Considered one of the great racers of the age, he regularly raced against other well known continental riders including Anzani, Guiponne, Fournier, and Olieslagers. However, over the years, his story has been forgotten until recently.

Growing up I had heard stories about a distant relative who had been the first Englishman to build and fly his own plane. Little else was known but after, first myself, then my mother started to delve into some family history, more details started to emerge. Contact with a distant cousin also researching the Barnes family precipitated his research and the book upon which this article is based. When I heard that he was writing a book about George Barnes I was excited and the result has not disappointed. From Motorcycles To Monoplanes by David Snow was published in 2010, almost exactly 100 years after Barnes received his pilot’s certificate, is an incredible result of tireless research and a fascinating account of sport at the time.

George Arthur Barnes was born in 1883 in the Admiral Keppel, one of his father’s many pubs in and around London, and died in 1919 at the age of 35 of Pnuemonia, possibly a side effect of the flu pandemic sweeping the World in those years. His father, Frank Barnes, was fairly rich and on his death in 1893, left a large estate and this legacy probably played a large part in many of the activities in which George participated.

Starting cycle racing competitively in 1901, the progression to motorcycling was natural as motorcycles were starting to appear in place of tandem bicycles for the purposes of pacing the cyclists. Indeed, it is known that Barnes did some pacing work on motorcycles so that is probably how he started. By the end of 1903 he was purely a motorcycle racer.

George got his first Record early in 1903 at Crystal Palace on a 2hp Mitchell motorcycle, that being the 5 miles standing start achieved in a time of 8 minutes 37 and 2/5 seconds. He went on to gain, lose, and re-gain many other records including the notorious ‘hour’.

In early 1903 George gained employment as a professional rider for the BAT motorcycle manufacturing company and on 23^rd May 1903 was in an accident at Bristol where two boy spectators were killed. The accident occurred in one race when Barnes tried to overtake a rider by the name of Bailey on the outside, as per the rules in those days. Bailey looked around and, as a result, ran wider up the bank forcing both of them over the edge of the banking and into the crowd at a speed of around 48mph. There was apparently no contact between the two bikes but a 4 and 14 year old boy were killed outright with several more injured including a 13 year old who died a couple of weeks later. Both Barnes and Bailey suffered only relatively minor injuries.

In March 1904 it was reported that Barnes was putting a motorcycle of his own manufacture on the market. He also made 3 wheeled ‘fore-cars’ or ‘runabouts’ and at least one car. There are many examples of adverts for his machines in magazines of the time.

In May 1905 he entered the International Auto Cycle Cup Trial which was held on the Isle of Man, the only place where racing public roads was allowed, and was the fore runner to what is now known as the Isle of Man TT. Technical difficulties which are rather sketchy resulted in his not managing to finish the race.

In 1906 he appeared in an act on the Music Hall stage which featured a couple of small circular tracks, one above the other, where two cyclists would race each other while being paced by a motorcycle. The next year the act went on tour appearing in Paris and Madrid, the second of which was enjoyed on 3 occasions by King Alfonso XIII. The act was also to appear in Berlin but during one act the contraption collapsed and had to be retired. After his flying career, in 1912, he wrote and acted in another Music Hall act which was a sketch about aviation. Reviews of this were not good although it was probably popular due to his celebrity status.

September 1909 is the first mention of George in relation to flying where it was announced in the Daily Mail that he would attempt to win the 1000 pound prize for the first British machine to fly over a circular mile piloted by a British aviator. The attempt was made in October and fell short by a quarter of a mile when a gust of wind caused his crashing into a ditch. He had, however, successfully completed the turn which was seen as the primary objective in demonstrating the required control. The machine was an aircraft of his own design and manufacture and he went on to develop another machine for further attempt but soon joined the Humber company and primarily flew their machines from then onwards.

In June 1910 Barnes gained his pilot’s license which was the 16^th ever issued in Britain. The test for this consisted of three separate flights showing that you could fly 5 kilometers before turning your engine off before making a descent and landing to within 150 meters of a pre-defined spot.

Over the next couple of years Barnes was busy flying demonstration and exhibition flights for Humber all over the country, including one in July 1910 where Sir Charles Rolls was killed when his tail collapsed and he dived vertically into the ground from only 20 feet. Flying exhibitions drew large crowds who expected to see a flight and there was great pressure to fly even when the weather meant that taking off in such light and low powered aircraft was dangerous. For example, in one exhibition at Workington in August 1910, Barnes considered the wind too dangerous for flying and asked that his fee be waived if they would release him from his contract to fly. Because the organizers were scared of the paying public reaction after a cancellation the previous day, they refused and insisted that he flew. Indeed, the wind did prove to be too strong for flying and he ended up crashing into the ground on the bank of the river Derwent.

Probably his final flight was at an event at Folkestone in September 1910 where he suffered a serious accident. With a machine suffering engine trouble for the duration of the several day event, his final flight ended when his machine was wobbling violently around the sky and he fell from the aircraft at a height of around 30 to 40 feet. Barnes would always exit the aircraft after touching down and would run alongside holding on in order to slow and stop the machine. It is thought probable that he was trying to execute this maneuver when the aircraft suddenly pointed nose up and climbed, causing him to fall. His landing rendered him unconscious and gave him a fractured skull and broken left wrist as well as significant bruising. Interestingly, this exit is listed as being the first ever exit from an aeroplane in flight.

Barnes married an actress by the name of Gertrude McPherson in 1911 but filed for divorce in 1916 and died of Pneumonia in 1919 before the divorce was finalized. They had no children and that was probably the main reason why George was largely forgotten until now.

I would like to thank the author, David Snow, not only for supplying the scans but also for all his hard work in researching and putting together a first rate account of George's short but exciting life.