Sefton Brancker

Infobox Military Person
name= Sir William Sefton Brancker
lived= 22 March1877 - 5 October1930
placeofbirth= Woolwich, Kent, England
placeofdeath= By Beauvais, France
nickname=
allegiance= flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom
serviceyears= c. 1896 to 1919
rank= Air Vice-Marshal
branch= British Army
Royal Air Force
commands=
unit=
battles= Second Boer War, First World War
awards=
laterwork= British Director of Civil Aviation

Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Sefton Brancker KCB, AFC (22 March1877 - 5 October1930), commonly known as Sir Sefton Brancker, was an important personality in the history of British civil and military aviation.

Early life

Sefton Brancker was born on 22 March 1877 at Woolwich in Kent. His parent were Colonel William Godefroy Brancker and Hester Adelaide, the daughter of Major-General Henry Charles Russel. The Branckers were a long-established Anglo-German family which had lived in England for several generations.

Sefton Brancker grew up as the elder of two brothers and their father died in 1885. From 1891 to 1894, the young Brancker attended Bedford School.

Military career

Brancker was trained for the British Army at Woolwich, joining the Royal Artillery. He served in the Second Boer War and later for a number of years in India, where he made his first flight in 1910.

During World War I, he held important administrative posts in the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force. He became major general in 1918, and received the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath the following year. In 1919, with the introduction of RAF-specific ranks, he became an Air Vice-Marshal.

Civil aviation

In 1922 he was made Director of Civil Aviation, and worked assiduously to stimulate UK interest in the subject with both local authorities and flying clubs. He encouraged Manchester and other cities to construct municipal airports and airfields. He participated in several long-distance survey flights. He was killed in the disastrous wreck of the R101 airship near Beauvais France early on 5 October 1930 during its maiden voyage to India.

Sir Sefton was chairman of the Royal Aero Club's (RAeC) Racing Committee from 1921 to 1930 and his dynamic leadership led to the RAeC forming the Light Aero Club scheme in 1925, which helped provide the UK clubs with examples of such new and improved aircraft types as the de Havilland Moth and Avro Avian.

In 1952 British European Airways named its 'Pionair' (Douglas DC-3) G-AKNB “Sir Sefton Brancker” to mark his substantial contribution to the development of British Aviation. In 1996 British Airways (BA) named one of its newly delivered Boeing 777's "Sir William Sefton Brancker" in recognition of his work. Other 777s in the BA fleet were named after aviation pioneers, for example "Wilbur and Orville Wright" and "Sir Frank Whittle." The aircraft (G-ZZZB) no longer carries Sir Sefton's name, aircraft names having been removed from the BA fleet since the short-lived 1997 Utopia re-branding.

References

* [http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Brancker.htm Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation - AVM Brancker]
* "Air Days", John F. Leeming, Harrap, London, 1936
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32041 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Brancker, Sir William Sefton] (requires login)

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