The Montrose Ghost

Thanks for this. Charman dates the move of the airfield to 1 January 1914. I think it's significant that the official report refers only to "the Flying Ground at Montrose". Masefield appears to have seen the report (or at any rate some of the reports). But if he was unaware that the airfield had been elsewhere for its first year, he would have assumed this referred to its later location north of Montrose. So he set his ghost story there, rather than at the real crash site.

Dunno. He said he landed on the Golf Course, next to where he saw the plane crash, and called for help from some golfers... Looking at a satellite image, the Montrose golf course today is right next to the North Montrose Aerodrome which only existed after 1914.... so where he landed, is near to where the crash happened... that can only be North Montrose Aerodrome

https://www.google.com/maps/place/56%C2%...1667?hl=en

Looking at the National Archives Online I'm having trouble finding archived Air Accident reports... for instance, here is another death reported in 1917, the same type of plane, and it crashed near to the North Montrose Aerodrome... but I can't find it in the National Archives...

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/loc...aerodrome/

I don't really doubt that Masefield had an experience, but if the records of accidents at Montrose are incomplete, I am doubting that they have corroborated the experience with a factual event, or the correct factual event.

I found this in the Dundee Courier from 1st Jan 1921... it seems to explain where the story originated "The Aeroplane" Magazine I guess the DEcember edition... (another one for Christmas?)

Another report on Desmond Arthur's Crash at Montrose, I thought interesting because it provides evidence that another pilot was in the air at the same time

I found this in the Dundee Courier from 1st Jan 1921... it seems to explain where the story originated "The Aeroplane" Magazine I guess the DEcember edition... (another one for Christmas?)

Thanks for this. The article in "The Aeroplane" can be found here:
https://archive.org/stream/aeroplane1919...0/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/aeroplane1919...2/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/aeroplane1919...6/mode/2up

I think clearly Masefield used the "Aeroplane" article by C. G. G. (C. G. Grey according to the blog post by Keith Coleman) in writing his own article, as the comparison below shows.

C. G. G., The Aeroplane, p. 967:
Desmond Arthur was rather by way of being a friend of mine. He was a little black-haired, gray-eyed Celt from the County Clare, a thorough sportsman, but, like all his type, given to extremes of elation and depression, and in the latter state he often gave one the impression of being what the Scots call "fey". Also, like all his type, he had a keen sense of his personal honour.
... the Montrose Ghost will be recognised as a most reasonable and rational being.

Masefield, p. 901:
Desmond Arthur was a singularly attractive character - a dark-haired, grey-eyed little Celt from County Limerick; kind and thoughtful, but what would now be known as a manic depressive. He was given to extremes of elation and depression, but he was a fine pilot.
* * *
The fire flickered. A wave of sympathy for the reasonable and rational Ghost of Montrose seemed to go round the group. We felt that we understood his keen sense of personal honour and his concern about the aspersions cast by non-flyers on his flying competence.

I'm searching through the Newspapers for these air crashes at Montrose Aerodrome, and I'm losing count, it's a bloodbath, they are plunging into the sea just meters off the airbase, flying into a House Chimney and bursting into flames, crashing into fields, I'm losing count of them... here's three pilots who died at Montrose in less than 7 days!

I think clearly Masefield used the "Aeroplane" article by C. G. G.

Well spotted. I'm still struggling through all these reports of crashes at Montrose...

Thanks for this. The article in "The Aeroplane" can be found here:
https://archive.org/stream/aeroplane1919...0/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/aeroplane1919...2/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/aeroplane1919...6/mode/2up

Excellent that... you've found the source. I get the feeling that Desmond Arthur's crash was one of the first Royal Airforce crashes, and therefore a new and novel event which captured the imagination of the public, it even raised questions in Parliament. Arthur, and the girl he was engaged to, were also well-to-do. That's probably why it got attention... and a great deal of very detailed publicity. Some of the Newspaper articles I haven't yet posted are astonishingly detailed and gruesome in their witnesses descriptions.  But a few years later on, things in the UK have changed dramatically. Pilots who die at Montrose only get a very brief mention, (if that)...because so many are dying by that time during World War I.

The second (printed one week after and so almost certainly written and sent before the first had been published) explained that there had been a saying at Montrose that a ghost would protect the pilots there until another war broke out. There were no fatalities there, but some "miraculous" near misses.

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/...00200.html

An interesting story. The "protection" must have lasted from the time the air base reopened, 1st Jan '36, until the 1st Sept '39. Not sure how many casualties a flying school could expect in that time span, but the letter states that fatalities were "not unusual".

Isn't it interesting that this letter reports a tradition of protection by a ghostly instructor who "would always be in the empty rear seat" - just like Masefield's ghostly flying companion?

I think clearly Masefield used the "Aeroplane" article by C. G. G. (C. G. Grey according to the blog post by Keith Coleman) in writing his own article ...

And can it be a coincidence that Masefield's obituary in the Daily Telegraph says "In 1939 he was contributing freelance reports of Royal Aeronautical Society lectures to The Aeroplane, whose editor CG Grey appointed him technical editor."?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar...field.html