The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was printed on behalf of the Imperial War Museum. The artwork was by C. R. Fleming-Williams, and the card has a divided back.
Note how everything this side of the RAF gate looks rather dull (including the man), whereas the other side of the gate is sunny and colourful.
The biplane and the RAF man's puttees suggest the latter stages of the Great War. The Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force on the 1st. April 1918.
Clifford Fleming-Williams
Major Clifford Roger Fleming-Williams, also known as "Cliff" and "Streamline Bill," was born in Dalston, Hackney, Middlesex on the 11th. April 1880.
‘Cliff’ Fleming-Williams came to work at Windermere at the start of 1915 as ground school instructor and general manager with responsibility for marketing. He also made drawings and designed a seaplane. He left in August 1916 to join the Royal Flying Corps.
Fleming-Williams was a pioneer of making drawings from the air in order to demonstrate the use of aeroplanes for military observation. As an example he made a drawing, elaborated on reaching the ground, of Brooklands. This appeared in The Illustrated London News on the 8th. April 1911.
The equipment comprised a glove for the left hand to protect from the cold, the right hand being protected by the lid of a drawing box fixed to the knee. A compass was strapped to the left wrist. Pencils were sharpened at both ends, and attached by string in order to prevent them falling.
Waterbird
The hydro-aeroplane Waterbird was commissioned by Edward Wakefield, who was an advocate of using hydro-aeroplanes to relay information by way of an observer and wireless, having learnt the value of scouting in the Boer War.
Testing of Waterbird initially took place at Brooklands during May-July 1911 and then conversion to a hydro-aeroplane at Windermere with the first flight on the 25th. November 1911.
‘Cliff’ Fleming-Williams as a Pioneer in Model Aviation
On the 20th. November 1909, a letter from Fleming-Williams was published in Flight magazine. It set out that having made 27 models, Cliff had at last arrived at a type which had covered a quarter of a mile several times.
Cliff achieved the world long distance record for an elastic-driven model: a twin propeller pusher.
He had given a demonstration of its capabilities before the representative of a large firm of buyers that week. Not only was the buyer perfectly satisfied that his model had beaten the world record, but gave him a large order for them.
Fleming-Williams experimented with model hydro-aeroplanes and wrote an article setting out his deductions in The Aeroplane magazine on the 29th. December 1911.
He created the first model hydro-aeroplane to lift off water. A print of this article was included within Wakefield’s personal papers and in his scrapbook.
Flight magazine, on the 18th. October 1913, included that Fleming-Williams claimed to be the originator of:-
(i) The first model hydro-aeroplane off water
(ii) The system of floatplanes as separate attachments to floats to form hydroplanes
(iii) The twin propeller duration model
(iv) The propellers behind the tail-type
(v) Hollow spars made in 2 sections
(vi) Rubber lubricant
(vii) Propeller winding by geared drill
By using 8 strands of strip rubber to each propeller, Cliff achieved 1,000 turns. He found 2 propellers to be a great help to continuity of direction provided they ran at the same speed, or it was easily possible by winding the leeward one a few more turns to make his model fly straight across a wind.
Fleming-Williams the Inventor
In 1913, Fleming-Williams applied for UK Patent No. 5,003 covering improvements relating to hydro-aeroplanes, so as to enable them to travel through rough water.
He achieved this by constructing the float so that it offered minimum head resistance. He also attached hinged and sprung, automatically adjusting planes, to the float bottom. The patent was granted in 1914.
He also successfully applied for UK Patents to:-
i. Absorb shocks to model or actual flying machines, and to maintain equilibrium during flight in 1911, and for a French Patent in 1910
ii. Attach skis to boots in 1911
iii. Deliver water or other liquid under pressure in 1919 (whilst back living at Windermere), and for a United States Patent in 1921
Further, Car Cruiser Caravans Ltd. applied for United States and Canadian Patents for his invention of a portable building which was proof against bullets, bombs and shell splinters in 1941 and 1943 respectively.
Fleming-Williams as a Seaplane Ground School Instructor, Artist and General Manager
Turned down for pilot training in the Royal Flying Corps due to his age, Fleming-Williams joined the staff of the seaplane flying school at Hill of Oaks, Windermere in early 1915.
His first task was to design and carry out a booklet. A full page advert for the booklet appeared in The Aeroplane magazine of the 20th. January 1915. It was described in Flight magazine, 5th. February 1915, as:
"More in keeping with one
of the expensive editions de
luxe to which of late years
the big publishing houses
have accustomed us."
The Aeroplane magazine, 3rd. February 1915, also had high praise:
"One of the most artistic productions which
has resulted from the aircraft industry up to
the present. It is the work of the well-known
artist, Mr. C. Fleming-Williams, who is not only
one of the few people who can draw an
aeroplane correctly, but is a master of pure
draughtsmanship where land, water or air are
concerned. His black-and-white sketches of
Windermere are themselves gems of black-
and-white art."
Included was a sketch of the hangars at Hill of Oaks and the bungalow to which he moved in 1916.
One of his drawings depicted a flying lesson by moonlight; these lessons were unique to Windermere. Another was entitled A Busy Day on Windermere.
Cliff also produced a drawing entitled Air Raiders in the Making – he wrote that the object of changing student pilots on the water was to save the waste of time entailed by coming in to the slipway and starting the engine again.
He also instructed on the theory of flight and aeroplane design. Cliff was an accomplished lecturer, having developed communication skills through taking Sunday School classes for his father who was a Congregational Minister. The school’s booklet promoted that:
‘Illustrated lectures are delivered by an
expert – not dry-as-dust mathematics –
but interesting talks knocked home with
pictures and humour’.
The breadth of his skills became of considerable value in a short space of time, such that he was described as ‘a capable right-hand man’ in The Lakes Herald, 26th. February 1915.
Fleming-Williams as Seaplane Designer
Fleming-Williams designed the P.B.1 seaplane and took charge of its construction at Cockshott, Bowness-on-Windermere.
Fleming-Williams as Royal Flying Corps Officer
Having been appointed as a Second Lieutenant in the RFC on the 21st. August 1916, Fleming-Williams was posted to the School of Military Aeronautics at Reading.
He rose from Assistant Equipment Officer to become Chief Instructor, and was promoted to Major. Such was his ingenuity, that in 1918 he made an instructional cartoon ‘The Theory of Flight – Without Tears !!’ to be shown to students at the School.
Fleming-Williams the Illustrator and Painter
Fleming-Williams had many illustrations published in magazines and books, dating from 1901 in The Graphic when he was aged 21.
He illustrated The Aeroplane Speaks by Captain H. Barber, which was reviewed by the Editor of The Aeroplane magazine, 24th. January 1917:
"His work is well known to this paper,
and who was about the first professional
artist who learned to draw an aeroplane
which looked like one.
His illustration of the interior of a wing
was particularly valuable, and so are his
diagrams of aeroplanes in various attitudes,
and the diagram of a modern cockpit with
its 'switchboard full of nickel-plated muckin’s'.
All his drawing is good. The sketches of
aeroplanes and their attitudes in the
Prologue are excellent."
Cliff was commissioned by Brigadier-General Archibald Maclean of the RAF (formed in 1918) to create a large series of paintings and lithographs documenting its activities at sea, plus recruitment – courtesy of the RAF Museum, and the work of the WRAF.
In addition to his background at Windermere, where for example there were 9 F.B.A. flying boats at various times, Cliff also visited the Royal Naval Air Station Felixstowe for research.
Following demobilisation from the RAF in 1919, he returned to Hill of Oaks, Windermere for about a year and re-established himself as an illustrator.
The book Royal Naval Air Service 1912-1918 by B. King features 5 of his paintings.
Fleming-Williams the Caravan Designer and Builder
Fleming-Williams then formed Car Cruiser Caravans Ltd. at Hayes, in order to build the caravans he designed which featured streamlining derived from his aeronautical work.
The Death of Clifford Fleming-Williams
Cliff died at the age of 60 on the 27th. December 1940 at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth.
The biography above includes contributions from David and Julie Fleming-Williams who have provided information about their grandfather.