• Hillman’s Airways

During the inter-war years Edward Henry Hillman was a significant public transport pioneer and innovator. During the course of a comparatively short life, he rose from the humblest of origins to become not only the proprietor of the world's largest privately-owned bus fleet, but also of a substantial airline. No mean achievement for one who claimed to have had no formal education. Invalided out of the army after the First World War with a partially amputated leg, ‘Ted’ Hillman started a car-hire service in London’s East End, branching out into the coaching trade in 1928 as Hillman’s Saloon Coaches. By the early 1930s a combination of cheap fares and fast, frequent services had created a fleet of almost 50 motor coaches and a substantial network reaching into East Anglia.

Late in 1931 Hillman’s transport ambitions led him towards commercial aviation, after a chance meeting with former RAF pilot, Harold ‘Timber’ Wood, who was to become the company’s chief pilot and later chief test pilot on the Blackburn Beverley. Employing the same methods that had already created a phenomenally successful road transport enterprise, Hillman embarked on this new venture with characteristic vigour, changing the name of his business to Hillman’s Saloon Coaches and Airways on 12 November 1931. His concept was to carry exactly the kind of passengers who patronised his coaches and bring the benefits of aviation to the ordinary man in the street. Eventually he hoped to be able to challenge the might of the government’s ‘chosen instrument’, Imperial Airways, whose services had for so long only been available to the better-off.

A natural site for the launching of this new venture proved to be close at hand, Maylands aerodrome, bordering the main A12 London-Chelmsford trunk road near Harold Hill. At that time, it was the only permanent airfield in Essex and Hillman’s coaches ran regularly along the adjacent highway. Hillman took over the aerodrome licence on 26 November 1931 and on the following day a brand-new DH Puss Moth, was delivered from Brian Lewis, the well-known aircraft dealer of Heston. A second example was acquired in December, followed in rapid succession by a DH 60M Moth and yet another Puss Moth. Thus equipped, the first regular service began on 1 April 1932 between Maylands and the popular seaside resort of Clacton-on-Sea in a flying time of just 30 minutes, a saving of 2½ hours over the equivalent road journey. Inclusive of surface transfers, fares were set at just £1 for a day return, competing favourably with Hillman’s coach services. Keeping the fares low required high utilisation and by June flights were operating every three hours between 9am and dusk, with 5s ‘flips’ filling in the slack periods.

Pilots, whom Hillman regarded as little more than aerial bus drivers, were paid just £5 per week plus between 2s 6d and £1 flying pay, over which the truculent owner frequently quibbled. Six or more casuals were usually employed and among early joiners were John Lock, John Oliver, Leonard Van Oppen and ‘Bill’ Flowerday, together with itinerants that included ‘Bob’ Crundall from Cobham’s Flying Circus and ‘Sammy’ Morton, later proprietor of Croydon’s Morton Air Services. Many of the pilots who cut their teeth flying with Hillman, went on to distinguished careers with Britain’s larger and more respectable airlines. Apart from the round of tripper flights and joy-rides, aerial photography and general press work was undertaken for, amongst others, the Central Press Agency, Fox Films, Pathe and the News Chronicle newspaper.

Needing aircraft of greater capacity to satisfy the demand, in March 1932 Hillman ordered four DH Fox Moths at a cost of £1,045 each. The first of the new machines was delivered in mid-June, but two were re-sold prior to delivery to Scottish Motor Traction, headed by John Sword, another bus entrepreneur who was starting a similar service in Scotland. The Clacton route was soon extended to Margate, another resort on the north Kent coast and the concern was now being advertised as Hillman’s Airways, offering charter services at between 3d and 6d a mile. Publicising his airline, Hillman hosted the Essex Air Pageant at Maylands on 24 September 1932, which drew a crowd of 20,000 together with many aviation personalities and dignitaries, including the Lord Mayor of London.

Seeking an even larger vehicle with which to launch a service to Paris, Hillman again turned to de Havilland which showed him the design for the Dragon, which exhibited exactly the kind of economics needed by small emergent airlines. Again, Hillman quickly ordered four aircraft at a total cost of £11,620 for delivery commencing April 1933, in time for the projected start-up of the continental service. The first Dragon, G-ACAN, was delivered to Maylands on 20 December 1932, to be christened Maylands by Amy Johnson, who in 1934 briefly flew for the airline to gain experience and publicity for her participation in the forthcoming MacRobertson England-Australia Race. On 1 April 1933 the first scheduled flight to Paris left Maylands piloted by ‘Timber’ Wood and arrived at its destination in just under two hours. The twice-daily service was soon available to the public at a fare of £5.10s, including ground transportation between city centres, contrasting with £8.10s on Imperial Airways’ prestigious Silver Wing service from Croydon. With three Dragons now available, the momentum was maintained with the opening of the twice-daily summer run to Margate and Ramsgate, providing connections to cross-channel steamers, while the Paris service was extended to Vichy during summer weekends.

Having hitherto operated as an unincorporated business, on 8 November 1933 Edward Henry Hillman Ltd was formed, changing its name to Hillman’s Airways Ltd 15 days later. Despite showing a loss of £4,698 for the year ending 31 March 1934, three DH Dragon Rapides were ordered off the drawing board for delivery between June and September 1934, with a further five joining the fleet during the summer of 1934. Maylands was by now becoming inadequate to contain the continuing growth of the airline and in May 1934 it began a move to Stapleford aerodrome, a little to the north. Known variously as Abridge, Stapleford Abbots, London East airport and Essex airport, the new facility was just 14 miles from central London and well outside the London fog belt.

Meanwhile, on 9 April 1934, Midland and Scottish Air Ferries had opened a trunk service between Glasgow, Liverpool and Maylands, connecting with Hillman’s continental route. All went well for several months, before John Sword’s initiative succumbed to pressure from Railway Air Services and was closed down. Hillman’s Airways took over the route from 16 July, flying from Stapleford with additional halts at Ronaldsway and Belfast. The competitive fare levels could not be sustained and it too was dropped in September, only to be revived three months later when the Post Office awarded a mail contract over the route. On 1 December 1934 Capt. Walter Anderson and Capt. Charles Pelly in Rapide G-ACPN and Dragon G-ACEU flew the inaugural services. Historically the operation, carrying about 225 kgs of letters daily, was noteworthy as the first UK internal airmail flown without special fee or label. However, the contract only lasted for 12 months before it reverted to Railway Air Services.

After nearly two years of nurturing and careful growth, Hillman’s Airways was beginning to turn the corner financially with a first profit of £3,548, aided by a doubling of summer bookings on the Paris route and total revenue boardings of 10,465 for the whole year. Notwithstanding high utilisation and a tendency to overload aircraft with excess baggage, the airline had never suffered a major accident, but this changed on 2 October 1934 with the loss of Rapide G-ACPM en route to Paris. The aircraft came down in the sea off Folkestone and disintegrated on impact, with the loss of all seven on board, and was thought to have fallen victim to navigational difficulties and loss of horizon in the prevailing conditions of low cloud-base and poor visibility. As a result, the authorities required all commercially licensed pilots to undergo an instrument flying test. On the same day, another Hillman’s airliner returning from Paris clipped Stapleford’s perimeter fence smashing an airscrew and damaging a wing, fortunately without injury to any of those on board.

Mounting competition and government regulation had forced the transfer of regular bus routes to the London Passenger Transport Board in August 1934, leading Hillman to completely divest himself of the increasingly troublesome coach business and concentrate solely on his aviation interests. At this juncture he decided to re-capitalise Hillman’s Airways by going public and aided by financial advisers from the d’Erlanger banking house, a completely new company was formed on 12 December 1934 to take over the existing business. A prestigious board was assembled headed by Sir Charles Harris, with Ted Hillman retained as deputy chairman and managing director for seven years, at an annual salary of £1,250, and Edward ‘Sonny’ Hillman Jr acted as works manager. However, at the height of his success, Ted Hillman suffered a sudden fatal heart attack and died at the age of 45 on 31 December 1934. Such was his popularity that thousands turned out to line the route of the funeral cortège to Romford cemetery, where he lies beneath a prominent headstone bearing the image of a DH Rapide.

Adding to the airline’s woes, two more incidents occurred which brought adverse publicity to Hillman’s Airways. The airline had for some time carried consignments of gold bullion on its Paris service for the well-known merchant bank of Samuel Montagu. On 26 January 1935 eight ingots valued at £22,000, along with passenger baggage, fell through the Rapide’s baggage compartment during a strong updraft. One suitcase was later recovered by the French coastguard, while the gold itself was discovered at a depth of two feet in a field at Inval-Boiron in the département of Somme. Shortly afterwards the contract passed to Air Dispatch on the strength of their new Avro 642 airliner having an all-metal floor.

Less than a month later, on 21 February 1935, two sisters, the daughters of the US consul general in Naples, and the only passengers aboard a Paris-bound Dragon, jumped to their death near Upminster after seemingly agreeing a mutual suicide pact. On the following day ‘Sonny’ Hillman, who had taken over as managing director, was sacked from his position following differences with the board about the direction that the company was taking. Simultaneously, Capt. T Neville Stack was brought in with the title of air superintendent. Stack, already well respected in aviation circles, introduced staff uniforms, navigation and night landing aids together with a new hangar at Stapleford. Sonny Hillman left to pursue his aviation interests elsewhere, becoming involved in the Spanish Civil War, the RAF and Swedish airlines, before moving to Australia where he died in 1977.

In April 1935 the lawyer Major Ronald McCrindle was brought in as managing director and Gerard d’Erlanger of the banking house was also appointed a director. Unhampered by Ted Hillman’s more measured approach, the extent of the new board’s ambitious programme was unveiled with the publication of the 1935 summer timetable. Further Rapide deliveries allowed frequencies between Glasgow, London and Paris to be doubled, while two new routes were opened in June linking Hull, Manchester, Liverpool and Belfast daily and London with Brussels (later extended to Antwerp) three times daily. On 20 June the first of three new four-engined DH.86 airliners was christened at Stapleford by Lady Cunliffe-Lister, wife of the Secretary-of-State for Air, and immediately departed on the inaugural flight to Brussels, flown by Capt. Walter Anderson, by then chief pilot.

With the introduction of these faster machines, journey times to the French capital were reduced by 15 minutes, commensurate with a fare increase of between 10s and 15s. From 15 July 1935 a summer service connected Stapleford with Le Zoute on the Belgian coast, via Ramsgate. Another innovation was combined air sea trips in conjunction with the General Steam Navigation Co. For the modest sum of 25s 6d, trippers could leave King’s Cross station at 8am by Hillman’s coach, arriving at Ramsgate by air from Stapleford at 9.45am and after five hours enjoying the delights of the seaside, return by the steamer Royal Eagle to alight at London’s Tower Pier in the late evening. This minor explosion in services and equipment required considerable amounts of capital and operating expenditure. As the summer wore on it became clear that the company had over-reached itself and was consequently forced to make drastic cuts in the timetable from early October. Matters came to a head at an extraordinary general meeting in mid-October 1935, where an anticipated loss of £28,600 was revealed.

To overcome these problems, it was announced that the Hon. Clive Pearson’s Whitehall Securities had bought the company and would amalgamate all of its airline interests, including Spartan and United Airways, into a completely new company. Apart from being better able to meet competition, it was felt that a more substantial organisation would potentially hold greater sway with the Air Ministry and in government circles. Thus, Allied British Airways (shortly changed to British Airways Ltd) emerged on 29 October 1935, and the Hillman name finally disappeared on 12 December 1935, when incorporation formalities were finally completed.