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Early
Days
By Mitch Stirling
Everybody remembers Pocket's Hill in Salisbury, but I wonder how
many remember Pocket's Bakery or Pocket's Tea room or Pocket the mayor of
Salisbury? The original bakery was on Railway Avenue, opposite the station
and the Tea room was in Stanley Avenue between Haddon and Sly and
McCullagh and Bothwell. Apparently old man Barbour used to own one of
those premises, but sold out to McCullagh and Bothwell because he couldn't
stand the smell of baking bread!
The Pocket family go way back in
the history of Rhodesia, back to the early 1900's when grandpa Pocket
owned all of 'the Hill'. Les Pocket, one of his sons, became the mayor of
Salisbury and he was a very enthusiastic aviator in those early days. In
fact, he remembered the arrival of the first aeroplane in Salisbury when
it approached from the west of the Kopje and landed on the old race course
near Rotten Row. That was on May 24, 1920 when Mr Earle Rutherford, the
pilot, made his debut in an Avro 504 of the South African Aerial Transport
Company.
In a letter to me from Durban in 1994, a few years before
he died, Les recounted a few of his early memories. They are fascinating.
"My parents owned an old Dodge Convertible", said Les, "in which our
family went to see some visiting SAAF aircraft." A flight of SAAF Wapitis
had arrived in Rhodesia, as they did on a number of occasions, along with
RAF visitors from Eastleigh, Nairobi. But on this occasion, one of the
SAAF pilots decided to show off. Adorned in his pith helmet (solar topee,
or Bombay bowler as they were called in those days), he took off towards
the crowd, soon realising what a very serious error of judgement he had
made. The take-off distance was far too short and he ended up in a tangle
of Pocket Convertible and Wapiti wings!
Fortunately there was
nobody in the car at the time, but young Cliff Pocket was standing behind
a rope barrier watching the proceedings when the aircraft wheels caught
the rope which hit him in the neck. "His neck was broken just above the
hangman's bone", said Les, "so he escaped a very sudden end. But, that
pilot should have been court-marshalled."
Happily, after a long period
in hospital, Cliff recovered fully.
Undeterred, Les himself learned
to fly with Pat Judson from the Rhodesian Aviation Company as his
instructor. But it was only a few years later that he was to witness the
accident that killed Pat Judson (November 1931) and caused the launch of a
famous memorial trophy; a beautiful silver cup surmounted by a model of a
DH Cirrus Moth. Throughout the years this Pat Judson Memorial Trophy has
been awarded for meritorious service to aviation to many deserving
individuals and groups in Rhodesia. The pre-war recipients were: Bertram
Danby Gray of Lonrho, Miles Burnett Bowker of RANA (Rhodesian and
Nyasaland Airways), and Mr H.H.C. Perrem of Umtali. After the war there
were Charles Prince, Miss Caroline Rowe, the Beaver pilots of CAA, Police
Reserve Air Wing, Coleman Myers, WAR McDonald, Jack Blanchard-Sims, Father
Brendon Conway (the 'sky pilot!'), Air Rhodesia Op's, Ken Murrell, Ken
Brown, Viscount crews of Air Rhodesia... and last before independence (but
certainly not least) Jack Malloch.
The cup, engraved with these
names, could be seen on display outside the post office in the old
arrivals/departures hall at Salisbury airport. But, I am very pleased to
say, it reposes safely these days in its original glass cabinet at
Mashonaland Flying Club, looked after by many old faithful members. It
should be a reminder to all of us, I think, that we share a wonderful
aviation heritage on which we should reflect with pride.
Westland Wapiti, a
British built two-seater aircraft built in the 1920's
The photo is the
Wapiti after it crashed into Pocket's Dodge Convertible (from the story).
The pilot looking in... with the 'Bombay bowler' on his head... is
probably the 'very one'!
End of Article
About the Author
Mitch Stirling was a Pilot with Air
Rhodesia.
Comments are always welcome - please send them to Eddy
Norris on ora...@gmail.com
No financial gain is intended from recording these memories of
Rhodesia on the ORAFs website or the distribution to those subscribed to
the ORAFs newsletter.
Refer: http://www.ourstory.com/thread.html?t=539459#664206
Kind Regards
Eddy Norris |
