George Holt Thomas
| George Holt Thomas | |||||||||||||
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| Born |
31 March 1869 Hampton House, Stockwell, London, England |
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| Died | 1 January 1929 (aged 59) Cimiez, near Nice, France |
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| Cause of death | Complications due to surgery | ||||||||||||
| Residence | North Dean House, Hughenden, Buckinghamshire | ||||||||||||
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| Occupation | newspaper publisher, aircraft manufacturer | ||||||||||||
| Years active | 1890–1920 | ||||||||||||
| Organization | H.R. Baines and Co. Aircraft Manufacturing Company |
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| Board member of | Birmingham Small Arms Company (for a few days in March 1920) | ||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Gertrude, neé Oliver | ||||||||||||
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| Old Bill | |
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Old Bill
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| Author(s) | Bruce Bairnsfather |
| Launch date | 1914 |
| End date | 1915 |
| Publisher(s) | Holt Thomas in The Bystander |
George Holt Thomas (31 March 1869 – 1 January 1929) aviation industry pioneer and newspaper proprietor. Holt Thomas founded, in 1911, the business which became Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited or Airco.
Son and grandson of successful artists he initially followed his father into The Graphic and Daily Graphic newspaper business in 1890, later making his own name and fortune by founding The Bystander and Empire Illustrated magazines. Something of a shrewd visionary he turned to aircraft in 1906.
George Holt Thomas was the seventh son of William Luson Thomas (1830–1890) and his wife Annie, daughter of John Wilson Carmichael. Born at Hampton House, Stockwell, south London, educated privately and at King’s College School, London he left Queen’s College Oxford in 1890 after two years and without taking a degree. In 1894 he married Gertrude daughter of architect Thomas Oliver of Newcastle upon Tyne, there were no children of the marriage.
After he left university in 1890 he joined his father’s newspaper business as a director then became its general manager and later founded The Bystander with its comic strip character "Old Bill" and Empire Illustrated so making his own name and fortune.
During 1906 he turned his attention to aviation recognizing its extraordinary potential. He became associated with the Farman brothers Dick, Henri and Maurice Farman born in Paris of English parents involved with newspapers. Through the Farmans he engaged a French pilot, Louis Paulhan, to compete for the £10,000 prize Holt Thomas’s friend Lord Northcliffe of the Daily Mail offered in 1906 for a successful flight from London to Manchester, a distance far greater than anyone had then flown. In April 1910 Paulhan won the prize.
Beginning the enterprise in 1911 Holt Thomas formed Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited in 1912 to build French Farman aeroplanes and obtained licences to build French Gnome and Le Rhone engines. The Farman biplanes were used as trainers by the Royal Flying Corps. (Note: AIRCO Group included: The Gnome & Le Rhone Engine Co— Peter Hooker Limited, Integral Propeller Co. & May, Harden & May Ltd.)
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