History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

In the early days of aviation, both the manufacturers and the pilots were finding their way to improve the capabilities of aircraft and their handling.  One of the young aviators was George Lee Temple. He was born in ‘Solheim’ a house in Cumberland Park Acton on 11 August 1892, the youngest son of Lieutenant George Theodore Temple RN (retired). His mother was Norwegian, and his father was awarded the Knight of the Order of St Olaf for surveying the Norwegian Coast. George Lee Temple was educated at the Trent College public school in Long Eaton, Gresham’s School in Norfolk, and then did an engineering apprenticeship with the Singer motor factory in Coventry which built cars and motorcycles. In 1910 he was a successful motorcycle racer for their works team. But after a motorcycle accident in 1912 he became interested in aviation, and in September he opened a flying school at Hendon with a partner, Mr F. Jameson. They purchased two secondhanded Bleriot monoplanes, and Temple taught hi...

After experimenting with kites and gliders, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic flight in an aeroplane on 17 December 1903 near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. It lasted less than a minute but news of the flight resulted in worldwide interest in aeroplanes and the desire to fly.                Wright Brothers 1903 flight There is undated film of Wilbur Wright on Pathe News. This was particularly the case in France and several Frenchmen soon became leading aviators. In July 1909 Louis Blériot flew from Calais to Dover and won the £1,000 Daily Mail prize for the first English Channel crossing by an aircraft.           French illustration of the Channel crossing Lord Northcliffe the owner of the paper, had been very impressed when he met Wilbur Wright during his demonstrations in France the previous year, and set up the prize. There is a local connection as Alfred Harmsworth had lived i...