Herbert G. Brackley

Herbert G Brackley was a pioneer of civil aviation during the first half of the twentieth century.

Brackley was born on 4 October 1894. During his early life, Brackley moved around many times, living for part of his life at 20 Umfreville Road, Harringay in London.

Joining Reuters in 1912, by 1914 he was working in their Paris office. He gained a Royal Aero Club Certificate in 1915. Intending to set up an air service for Reuters after the war, these plans fell through and instead he went to Newfoundland with a Handley Page V/1500 in order to attempt the trans-Atlantic crossing. Beaten in the attempt by Alcock and Brown, he flew the other way and completed the first flight from Newfoundland to New York City, accompanied by Admiral Mark Kerr. He also completed a number of other record breaking flights in America. Returning to Britain, he joined Handley Page as the Chief of the Air Department of Handley Page Transport.

In 1921 he joined the British Air Mission as an Air Adviser to the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service and spent the next three years helping in the organisation and training of the Japanese Naval Air Arm. Returning to Britain in 1924, he joined the newly formed Imperial Airways as their Air Superintendent as well as remaining a member of the RAFO. His task with Imperial Airways was to plan operations and organise training as well as carry out route development. He even undertook some of the developmental flying himself such as the first scheduled flight in the new Armstrong Whitworth Argosy from London to Paris which he carried out on 5 August 1926. He also personally surveyed the route to be taken by the new four engined flying boats between England and Australia, recommending that large distances could be flown overland.

Recalled to service in 1939, he was initially assigned to Coastal Command where his experience with flying boats and trans-Atlantic flights proved useful. However, by the middle of the war the vast operating areas, the speed of modern warfare and the development of airborne forces, not to mention the ferrying of aircraft to and from operational zones, had brought with them the requirement for dedicated transport units. In 1943 these dedicated units were brought together under the umbrella of the newly created Transport Command. With his pre-war experience of running an Empire wide airline service, it was appropriate to appoint him to the post of SASO in the new command.

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