32 such as Dover Regatta. We are to make a difference in Dover. We all constantly looking for further know the difficulties the global volunteers to help with the bookstall economy has left us facing, but at local as well as the rubbish clearances that level we simply cannot afford to sit we do from time to time, so why not back and bemoan our lot whilst doing join in. LRCF can be contacted through nothing about it. With your help, LRCF the 'Contact Us' tab on our website will continue to make a difference for www.londonroad.info or just by years to come. We enjoy support from walking into The White Horse in St Councillors, Dover District Council James's Street where, over a pint, the Officers, the White Cliffs Countryside landlady will wax lyrical about a Partnership and even Kent Police. Can community group that really is trying we add you to our list of supporters? * * * * * One of a series of articles covering the lives of Dovorians of international renown. Harriet Quimby - the first woman to fly the Channel by Lorraine Sencicle B.A. (econ) hons few days before Louis Bleriot miles before his engine failed. On the Aentered the history books as the morning of Bleriot's epic flight, 25 first person to cross the English July 1909, as it was windy, Latham's Channel in a heavier-than-air flying advisors let him sleep. Nonetheless, machine, Hubert Latham (1883-1914) there is a statue to Latham near Cap had taken off from France. He flew 8 Blanc Nez, outside Calais. Less than a year later, on 2 June 1910, Charles Rolls (1877-1910) made a return flight across the Channel. Leaving Dover at 6.30pm he was over Sangatte, France, at 7.15pm and was back in Dover at 8.00pm. Over 3,000 people witnessed the event, after which he was carried through Dover, shoulder high. A month later Charles Rolls lost his life in a flying accident at Bournemouth. A bust of him can be Harriet Quimby © Giacinta Bradley Koontz seen on the Seafront. 33 In 1912 the first woman, Harriet Quimby, (1875-1912), flew across the Channel. Many, including myself, feel that there should be a monument, a road name or even a plaque in Dover/Whitfield, to celebrate her achievement. It was on TUesday 16 April that Harriet took off from Whitfield aerodrome, in a Bleriot monoplane with a 50hp Gnome Harriet Quimby in the Bleriot plane © Giacinta Bradley Koontz engine, to make the epic flight. The On arrival at Hardelot, Harriet was feat took 59 minutes and she landed keen to undertake trials but the at Hardelot-Plage, about 25 miles (40 weather decided otherwise. The wind km) from Calais. Her account was increased throughout the first day and published in Fly Magazine of 12 July on the second, it blew a gale. The 1912. wind showed no sign of abating but as the Daily Mirror had given her a Harriet, a journalist, gained her pilot's deadline to meet, she ordered the licence in August 1911, the first monoplane should be shipped to w om an to do so in the US. By Dover. Christmas, she had decided to be the first woman to fly across the Channel As she was concerned about keeping and through contacts managed to get the whole venture a secret, the a letter of introduction to Louis monoplane was to be delivered to the Bleriot in Paris. On 1 March 1912, aerodrome, which she described as Harriet set sail for London on the having, “a fine, smooth ground from Hamburg-American liner Amerika, which to make a good start. The famous where she put her plan to the editor Dover Castle stands on the cliffs, of the Daily Mirror. overlooking the Channel. It points the way clearly to Calais." Her next stop was Paris, where she placed an order with Bleriot for a In Dover, Harriet stayed at the Lord seventy-horse-power machine. At the Warden Hotel, where she met same time, she persuaded Bleriot reporters from the Mirror. The to loan her a fifty-horse-power following day, Sunday, was perfect for monoplane for the Channel crossing. flying, "there was no wind. The sun was Bleriot agreed and suggested that the bright and warm. The air was so clear aeroplane should be first tried out that by straining our eyes a little we from his airfield at Hardelot-Plage. could see the French coast dimly 34 outlined across the channel." However, she could see France on the horizon. Harriet's mother had asked her never However, part way across the to fly on Sundays. Channel Harriet ran into a bank of cloud so was obliged to use her Instead, she and aviator Gustav compass in earnest. When she Hamel went to Whitfield to inspect thought she was nearing Hardelot, the Bleriot monoplane and for Gustav Harriet dropped down below the to show her how to use a compass. On cloud. Unfortunately, she did not arrival, a crowd of reporters and recognise where she was so landed on spectators greeted them, as rumour a beach. had spread that a woman was going to attempt to fly a solo Channel flight! Soon a crowd of fisher folk gathered, congratulating her. Then, according to The following morning, Monday, Harriet, one of the women "insisted Harriet, Hamel and the Mirror upon serving me with a very welcome reporters all geared themselves up for cup of hot tea, accompanied by bread the flight, but strong winds made it and cheese. The tea was served in a cup impossible. However, by 3.30am on fully six times as large as an ordinary the TUesday, the wind had eased. teacup and was so old and quaint that I Dressed in a flying suit of her could not conceal my admiration of it." trademark purple wool-back satin, The fisherwoman let Harriet keep the she wore two pairs of silk cup. Then the media arrived and combinations underneath. Over this Harriet was assured of her entry into apparel, she wore a long woollen coat, the history books as the first woman an 'American raincoat' all topped with to fly the Channel. Sadly, Harriet was a sealskin stole. not given the recognition she Before going to Whitfield, she stopped deserved for on 14 April the Titanic at the Bleriot Monument on Northfall had tragically hit an iceberg off the Meadow. Besides providing Harriet coast of Newfoundland. with the machine, Bleriot had secured Less than six months later, near a long pontoon beneath the fuselage Boston, Massachusetts, while at the to enable it to float until someone controls of her new 70hp Bleriot, rescued her, if she went down in the Harriet and her passenger fell to their Channel. At the aerodrome, Hamel deaths. Harriet was 37 years old. undertook a trial run. Satisfied with the monoplane, Harriet climbed Thanks to Giacinta Bradley Koontz aboard and took off at 5.30am. Within (Aviation Historian/Author) and thirty seconds, Harriet had climbed Martin Young (Aviation Historian) for fifteen hundred feet and flew over the their help and loan of the picture and Castle. There, Mirror reporters were photograph. waiting to take pictures of her. For more information on Harriet As the early morning mist cleared, Quimby: www.harrietquimby.org.