Alex
Henshaw
Alexander Adolphus Dumfries Henshaw was born on 7th
November 1913, the son of a well-to-do Lincolnshire businessman. As a
young boy he was presented with the Royal Humane Society Award for
rescuing a youth from the River Witham.
Henshaw
showed an early affinity for engineering, and arrangements were made for
an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce. However, before starting this, he
worked for a time as a salesman for one of his father's businesses, and
he proved so successful at this that he never returned to the
apprenticeship.
While still a young teenager, Henshaw learned to fly in a Gypsy Moth,
and soon afterwards with his father's assistance, acquired a Moth of his
own, G-AALN. This was followed by a Comper Swift G-ACGL. Only two days
after this was delivered, Henshaw at the age of 19 won the Siddely
Trophy at the 1933 Kings Cup, thereby starting his racing career in
earnest on a highly auspicious note.
In 1937 Henshaw acquired a Percival P6 Mew Gull, formerly ZS-AHM
The Golden City, in which Major Allister Miller had entered the
1936 Schlesinger Race from Southampton to Johannesburg. Sadly, Major
Miller did not complete the race, having been forced to withdraw in
Belgrade. The aircraft was subsequently re-registered as G-AEXF, the
number that she still carries today.
Alex Henshaw's racing career reached its zenith in 1938, when he won
the King's Cup with a fastest time of 236.25 mph. The following year he
concentrated his efforts on an attempt to beat the existing records for
the point-to-point London to Cape Town flight.
The statistics for the flight which are quoted below were taken from
Mr Henshaw's book, "The
Flight of the Mew Gull".
LONDON TO
CAPE TOWN: |
Total elapsed time: |
39hrs 23
mins. |
Time
Airborne: |
30.28 hours. |
Distance: |
6377 miles. |
Average
speed: |
209.44 mph. |
This was the fastest time for any aircraft or crew from England to
Cape Town. It reduced the existing solo record by 39 hours and 3
minutes.
CAPE TOWN TO LONDON |
Total
elapsed time: |
39hrs 36
mins. |
Time
Airborne: |
30.51 hours. |
Distance: |
6377 miles. |
Average
speed: |
206.40 mph. |
Alex Henshaw with Sir Winston Churchill after
a Spitfire demonstration (From Sigh for a Merlin)
|
Alex Henshaw meeting King Haakon of Norway at
Castle Bromwich (From Sigh for a Merlin)
|
This was in 1939 the fastest time for any aircraft or crew from Cape
Town to England. It reduced the existing solo record by 66 hours and 42
mins. Not only were all Cape Town-and-return records broken but also for
every stage en route and remain so in the solo classification to this
day. The England-Cape Town-England (12,754 miles) is still in 1999 an
all-time record.
Henshaw's book The Flight of the Mew Gull provides a
wonderfully readable account of this epic achievement.
On 17th February 1940 Alex Henshaw married Barbara, Countess de
Chateaubrun. He himself has written of this marriage, which endured for
56 years until Barbara's death in 1996, that it was one of the three
great influences in his life - the other two being his involvement with
the Spitfire and the Mew Gull.
After the outbreak of war, Henshaw was appointed Chief Test pilot at
Castle Bromwich, the largest factory producing Spitfires and Lancaster
bombers. As a result of this work, his name has become even more
familiar in connection with the Spitfire than the Mew Gull. It was at
this time that he met Jeffrey Quill, the Supermarine test pilot with
whom he was to develop a close and lifelong friendship. Quill has
described Alex Henshaw as "the last of the great amateurs" - an
appellation with which Henshaw himself is clearly delighted.
This illustration shows Mike Hill's Mk Vb Microsoft
Flight Simulator 98
model preparing to take off from a grass strip. |
The
years at Castle Bromwich are chronicled in Henshaw's first book,
Sigh For A Merlin, described by RAF News as "one of the best
Spitfire books".
After World War II, Henshaw worked for two years in Johannesburg as a
Director of Miles Aircraft SA Ltd, which was affiliated with the General
Mining and Finance Corporation. At this time he became friends with Wing
Commander Ian Hay, with whom he maintained close contact. Wing
Commander Hay now lives in Durban, South Africa.
Alex Henshaw receiving the Jeffrey Quill Award
from HRH Prince Philip, 1997 (From The Flight of the Mew Gull)
Henshaw returned to Britain from South Africa, and subsequently
became involved in a range of family businesses. In 1953, when he was
living at Sandilands, he was cited for heroism for his part in the
rescue of many members of his community when tide and storm surge
conditions resulted in massive flooding of the Eastern seaboard of
Britain.
Alex Henshaw retired and
moved to Newmarket, while his son
Alex runs the family businesses. He was a recent past President of the
Spitfire Society, and in 1997 was presented by HRH Prince Philip with
the inaugural Jeffrey Quill Award for his services to Aviation. In 1998
he travelled to Australia to present the Spitfire Memorial Defence
Fellowship. Alex Henshaw died at home in Newmarket on 24 February 2007. |