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RefNoKWH/3G/2501C
AltRefNoWH3/2501C
TitleWill Moorhouse's Bleriot Monoplane Fuselage on a Motor Vehicle
DescriptionThis image was taken in Huntingdon, at the junction of Ermine Street, the High Street and Cromwell Walk. The original fence at the front of 79 Ermine Street can be seen on the left of the photograph, then Cromwell Walk leads off to the left, with part of the first small cottage which fronts the ring road today. The fence and wall behind the group would have been the boundary of Cromwell House garden. Note the rudder of the aircraft is marked Will Moorhouse and the advertising sign for Marshall Brothers Huntingdon Brewery stout.
William Barnes Rhodes Moorhouse stands at the front of the group leaning backwards with his with his left hand on his hip and pointing at one of his colleagues. After leaving university in 1909, he took flying lessons and gained his pilot's certificate. He took part in aviation races and designed aircraft, working with James Radley at the Portholme Aerodrome Company, and flying aeroplanes on Portholme. Their first aircraft built was a single seater with a gull wing which flew at Portholme for the first time on the 27th July 1911.
At the outbreak of the First World War Rhodes-Moorhouse enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps. On the 26th April 1915 he was severely wounded during a bombing raid at Kortrijk, Belgium, and died the next day of his wounds. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first aviation VC of the war.
Date1912
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croh.ph.WH3_2501C.jpg

CreatorNameThe Whitney Collection
RepositoryHuntingdonshire Archives
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