Stanley Blackall Bradley
Stanley Blackall Bradley (1887-1919) RAF
1887 Born in West Bromwich[1], son of Walter Frederick and Elizabeth Bradley.
1911 Stanley Blackall Bradley, a fitter (Cambridge undergraduate), visited his brother Hugh Lionel Bradley 29, who was a curate in Chester[2]
1917 Second lieut. S. B. Bradley gained his flying certificate at Ruislip Military School[3]
1919 Died in an aeroplane accident at Caterham. The crash was on 11th Dec 1919, Bradley died on the 13th Dec. The passenger also died George Franklin Rand from the USA age 52. Aircraft came down near the Guards Depot.
1919 Inquest [4]
The inquest on Lieutenant Stanley B. Bradley (52), who, with a passenger, received fatal injuries in the crash of an Airco machine at Caterham on Thursday, was held by the Croydon Coroner yesterday. Medical evidence was that the deceased never spoke coherently after the accident. He had so many broken bones that, coupled with the shock, his case was quite hopeless from the first.
Major Patteson, of the Aircraft Transport and Travel Company, owners of the machine, who has flown between Paris and London over two hundred times, gave expert evidence. Witness disagreed with the supposition that the deceased was trying to land, pointing out that the field where the accident occurred was one of only four acres. Lieut. Bradley was absolutely on the route he was supposed to fly, which he knew well, and was only about a mile froth Kenley Aerodrome.
Witness was certain he was not lost in the mist. He was one of the finest pilots who had ever taken to the air. It was dangerous for him to have flown above the clouds without special equipment. He was flying along the base of a cloud, which witness believed "pinched" him lower and lower until he struck the tree on the top of an 800 ft. hill whilst trying to reach Kenley Aerodrome.
The Coroner, in certifying a verdict of "accidental death," held that it was impossible to say definitely whether the deceased was attempting to land or only attempting to take his bearings.
1919 Obituary [5]
Lieut. Stanley Blackall Bradley, R.A.F., who died, aged 32, as a result of the aeroplane accident at Caterham on the 11th inst., was privately educated at Cranleigh, subsequenly training for four years in the Crewe works of the London and North-Western Railway Company. He then entered Caius College, Cambridge, where he remained three years studying engineering. On leaving the University he joined the firm of George Craddock and Co., Ltd of Wakefield, subsequently passing on to the firm's house in India. An unfortunate accident which then befell him might well have cost him his life. Within a few hours of his arrival in Calcutta, he fell 60ft. from the window of his hotel. Helped by great pluck and the possession of a splendid constitution, this accident left no more trace than a very slight limp. It had the effect. however, when the war came some years later, of delaying the achievement of his ambition to join the Air Service. However, he succeeded eventually, became a first class pilot, and joined No. 110 Squadron then forming part of the Independent Air Force whose duty it was to carry out long-distance raids into Germany. When the war came to an end, he decided to remain, if possible, in air work, and he gladly accepted an invitation to join the staff of the Aircraft Travel and Transport Company. On the firm's behalf he visited Brazil but all the time he longed to be back in actual flying work, and when so allowed he joyfully became one of the small band of picked pilots to whom are entrusted the fast aircraft which fly between London and Paris. His death comes as an intense blow to his friends, to whom he will remain a splendid example of the courage and energy which went to the making of the Royal Air Force.