Museum ID: WNDRB : 465.60
A commemorative postcard celebrating Great Britain's first aerial post-delivery, landing in Windsor in 1911. On Saturday 9th September, 1911, a pilot named Gustav Hamel piloted a Bleriot XI from Hendon to Windsor to deliver the first official Arial Mail carried in Great Britain. Within the contents of the pilot’s mailbag were 300-400 letters and about 800 of the aforementioned commemorative postcards. The one exhibited here was addressed to a Scout Master residing in Windsor. It is reported that Mr Hamel also wrote a postcard while en route to Windsor, although its contents are now a mystery. Some months after his famed Windsor delivery, Hamel made his first cross-channel flight. Despite 21 successful cross-channel flights, Gustav Hamel sadly disappeared over the English Channel on the 23rd May, 1914. A fishing vessel spotted a body matching Hamel’s description in the July of that year, but the body was not retrieved from the ocean by the vessel’s crew.Measurements: 102 x 153
Materials: Card
Categorised under: Transport and Aviation