Viva Lewes Issue 117 June 2016

INSIDE LEFT
DOWNITY DOWN DOWN
The caption accompanying the negative of this image – another from Reeves - gave us enough clues to
find out quite a bit about this month’s picture. ‘M. Duval’s biplane at Lewes’, it reads. Tom and Tania revealed
it was, from its catalogue number, most likely taken around 1911. Monsieur Duval turns out to be
the celebrated aviator Emile Duval; the picture must have been taken during the 1911 ‘Circuit d’Europe’
race, which took place between June 18th and July 7th, with different legs setting off from Paris, Liège,
Utrecht, Brussels, Roubaix, Calais, London, Calais again, and back to Paris. The ante-penultimate leg,
from Calais to Hendon, included a stopover at Shoreham Airport, though by then Duval, we learn from
contemporary records, had dropped out of the race.
We assume M. Duval flew over the Channel despite his elimination from the race, and landed in Lewes
– such unscheduled stops were common in this period of aviation. Bob Cairns, in his book Lewes Through
Time, pinpoints the location to Rise Farm in Southover. As such flying machines were in their infancy
(the first cross-channel flight had only taken place in 1909) the arrival of such a flamboyant figure in
such a magnificent machine must have been quite an occasion for the locals. By the time the plane managed
to take off again, according to a contemporary newspaper report, its chassis was covered in graffiti.
Further research suggests the model measures 8-metres long and 8-metres high, and has a weight of 207
kilos. Its Paris-born pilot would have been just 24 at the time; pictures of him show he wore a splendidly
waxed moustache. He was the 118th ‘Vieille Tigre’ (old tiger, French term for Flying Pioneer) to be
given his licence, and he generally flew, as in this case, a Caudron biplane. Duval, unsurprisingly, joined
the Armée de L’Aire (French Air Force) during WW1. He was involved in two bad accidents, the second
of which earned him the Croix de Guerre as his courage in the face of adversity saved the life of his passenger
and enabled the plane to be salvaged for re-use. He lived until 1956; we imagine he never forgot
his unexpected stopover in Lewes. AL Thanks, as ever, to Edward Reeves, 159 High St, 01273 473274
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