Events of interest

Early methods used at Croydon to make life easier in swinging the 'prop start' aircraft engines. (above) an "Airco' designed unit adapted on a Ford Model T. (below) a newspaper article of the time.

1918

(below) a fun pretend Sopwith Camel at an aerodrome fair August 1918.

1920

From September to the end of November 1920, a private 'Banking Service' was operated between Croydon - Paris, by a 'Westland Limousine', G-EAJL.

1921

(above) pig flying 1921.

1922

(below) about to board a 'DH' for an outing to Paris on the 7th of September 1922.

1923

(above) school children on an outing to the airport in 1923.

(above) the 'Savoy Orchestra'. 1923

1927

(above & below) the arrival of a group of North American Indians in 1927. Chief 'Eagle Elk' of Sioux and his braves. Bottom pic is of Chief Eagle Elk in the cockpit of a plane.

(below) A lion arrives by Imperial Airways.

(below) Horse and rider greet the aircaft

(below) 'Flying Abroad At 92'. Mrs Elizabeth Reeve the oldest inmate of Tate's Almshouses, Mitcham, shaking hands with the pilot before leaving Croydon by air for Cologne in 1927.

(below) A party of London businessmen left on the 16th of March 1927 in a 14 seater Handley Page Napier airliner, chartered from Imperial Airways for a weeks air tour of European business centres, including Paris, Cologne and Hamburg.

1928

(above) passengers awaiting

(above) Russian gold being unloaded

(below) Big game hunters leaving in 1928.

(below) On the evening of 4 July 1928, Loewenstein left from Croydon Airport to fly to Brussels on his private aircraft, a Fokker F.VIIa/3m trimotor (G-EBYI), along with six other people. According to those on board, while the aircraft was crossing the English Channel at an altitude of 4,000 ft (1,200 m), Loewenstein went to the rear of the aircraft to use the lavatory. In Loewenstein's aircraft, a door at the rear of the main passenger cabin opened on to a short passage with two doors: the one on the right led to the lavatory, while the one on the left was the aircraft's entrance door. When Loewenstein had not reappeared after some time, his secretary went in search of him and discovered that the lavatory was empty, while the aircraft's entrance door was open and flapping in the slipstream. The employee (along with the others on the aircraft) asserted his belief that Loewenstein had fallen through the aircraft's rear door and plunged several thousand feet to his death in the English Channel. The aircraft landed first on the beach, before transferring to the airfield at Saint-Inglevert, Pas-de-Calais, France.  (above) Loewenstein and wife.

1930

(below) September the 23rd 1930. Complaints were made of low flying aircraft over the main road at an inquest yesterday, after two men were killed in a recent crash nearby. The picture shows a typical day.

(above). 24th March 1930 Passengers waiting to board an aircraft at Croydon Airport, London, bound for the Grand National in Liverpool.

(below) 'VAN LEAR BLACK'S AIR YACHT'. 19th of February 1930. The giant tri-motored Fokker which is being used by Von Lear Black, the Baltimore publisher, photographed in it's hangar just before leaving on a flight to the Orient.

(above) R101 Airship disaster survivor arriving at Croydon Oct 1930

(above) a school visit in the 1930's.

(above) 1930. Singh leaves for India.

1931

(below) Flying Ambulance at Croydon in 1931.

(below) Catford Bootmakers and family's visit. 1931

(above) 1931. 'Hercules' flies 4,000 miles in 40 hours.

On the 24th of April 1931 the Riley Car Club held a rally to Croydon Airport with a final park-up in front of 'C' Hangar and reception at the Aerodrome Hotel.. Pictures below.

Leaving at 9am on the 8th of September 1931, cars entered in a Veteren Car Run from the Airport to Eastbourne. Pictures below.

1932

(below) Ashford Motor Club outing 1932.

(below) A fun plane face in 1932

(below) lions being flown 1932

(below) the Arsenal Football Team flying out by Imperial Airwys in October 1932, to play The Paris Racing Club in a charity match.

1934

(below) 'EUROPE'S FASTEST AIRLINER'. The German Heinkel flies at 200 miles an hour with it's undercarriage drawn up into the wings to reduce wind resistance. The plane is pictured at Croydon on the 25th of June 1934.

(below) 6th of February 1934. 'SEVEN AIRLINERS IN A RECORD GOLD RUSH, DASH TO THE CONTINENT AND BACK THIS MORNING'. The gold rush started early when seven airliners took off for the Continent to rush back to the Bank Of England with the biggest cargo of gold carried by air in a single day, will be exported to America. One of the giant Imperial airliners was reported to have brought back 5 tons. Picture shows gold being wheeled away from an airliner after it's arrival.    (above) painting depicts a race held in 1934 from Paris to Croydon, between 'Homing pigeons' an 'Aircraft' and a 'Car'.

1935

(above) 1935.

The Croydon Airport Bullion Heist in1935  A group of notorious gangsters were involved in stealing the gold, worth an estimated £12million at today's prices. It was never recovered. In the 1930s, Imperial Airways transported freight, mail and gold bullion around the globe from the airport. Security was very lax and with only one person on night duty and nothing but a set of keys keeping them from the strongroom, it was the perfect target for the ruthless robber At 4am on the 6th of March 1935 three men walked unchallenged into the main airport building while Francis Johnson, the man on duty, woke up and made his way onto the air strip to receive a German airliner. At 7am he would discover that they had strolled off with a fortune in gold bound for Paris and Brussels. The gold was never found and despite at least five strong suspects, only one person went to jail for the theft. Cecil Swanland, a 47-year-old impoverished artist with expensive tastes and a young, stylish wife, was jailed for seven years in connection with the crime. The other two men charged - Silvio 'Shonk' Mazzarda, a 38 year-old bookmaker and prominent member of the notorious Sabini gang and a man in his 70s called John O'Brien - were cleared. Mazzarda, O'Brien and another man known only as Little Harry were involved in the actual robbery. They were picked up by taxi driver George Mason and driven to the airport to pick up the gold and then taken to Swanland's house. If it was not for a cyclist who had taken down the number of the taxi when he saw it by the airport at 5am, the men might never have been caught. The taxi number led the police to Mason who said that he had been woken up by someone called Little Harry, who they never identified, asking him to drive some men to Croydon Airport from Kings Cross Station. Mason said that he had known Shonk Mazzarda for 30 years and identified him and O'Brien in an identity parade. In court, however, he changed his testimony and refused to acknowledge that he knew the men. As a result they could not be prosecuted and walked away. According to the released files, the police interviewed Mazzarda again in 1937 and he told them that they had obtained copies of the strongroom keys from Burtwell Peters the chief unloader at the airport. He was paid handsomely for his part in the crime. It is unknown why Mazzarda felt comfortable talking to the police. It could be that the getaway driver for the Sabini gang was so confident of his strong mob connections that he was not too worried about being arrested. Swanland was not so lucky. His nosy landlady Mrs Schultz was able to testify that she had seen a taxi arrive at his house and men unloading boxes early in the morning of March 6. When the police searched Swanland's house they found newspaper reports of the theft, an Imperial Airways timetable and debris in the fire place which turned out to be an iron band similar to those securing the boxes of gold. In the dustbin they found seals for Messrs Japhet & Co, exactly like the ones that had been on one of the missing boxes. Swanland, who had previously served two substantial prison sentences for forgery and three for theft, was unable to explain why he had ordered £59 worth of clothes, bought a pair of gold cufflinks and a £50 brooch for his 21-year-old wife before the trial, despite having no money. Evicted from her lodgings, Mrs Swanland moved in with her mother who lived at 48 Dean Street. Although it was never mentioned in court, the police believed that the gold had been transported to this address. Mrs Swanland, who had no form of income yet, was known to have a substantial bank account after the robbery. She made applications to leave £30 at Wandsworth prison for her caged lover. For his part, Swanland had to spend seven years locked up before he could enjoy the proceeds of the crime.

1936

(below) Going to Sweden. 1936

The Spanish Civil War    (above) Captain Cecil Bebb  At 7.15am on the 11th of July 1936 Captain Cecil Bebb and his navigator friend Major Hugh Pollard took off from Croydon in their 'De Havilland DH89 Rapide'. On paper, it was a tourist trip with Pollard's daughter and her friend as passengers. But the flight had a different purpose. Bebb's mission was to collect General Franco from the Canary Islands to initiate the Spanish Nationalist military coup.  (above) a 'De Havilland DH84 Dragon' of Air Dispatch Ltd at Croydon  In late 1936 Mary Victor Bruce owner of Air Dispatch Ltd at Croydon, sold two of it's 'De Havilland DH.84 Dragons' for a large amount of cash to a mystery man, and they were covertly exported for use in the Spanish Civil War. A 'DH89 Rapide' was stored in 'D Hangar' at Croydon in the 1950's that was used in the Spanish Civil war as a bomber. It had an inward opening removable door, and was fitted with racks along the inside where small bombs could be lifted from and thrown out through the doorway.

1937

(above) a 'Rytcraft' car after being unloaded at Croydon in 1937

1939

(above) Jewish refugees arrested. 1939

(above) 1939 Basque kids off to Switzerland

(above) Marlborough House visit 1939.

Post War

(below) Russian Football team arrives on the 4th of November 1945. The football team with the councilor of the Russian Embassy and his son (right) after greeting the team on their arrival.

(below) Croydon Airport early 1950s set up for the film Mr Potts goes to Russia starring George Cole.      The naming of a popular British car The picture below is one regularly posted in Croydon groups but little is ever mentioned about it's content or origin (except to try and identify some of the vehicles). Well there is an interesting Croydon connection to the naming of a very well known and popular British car. One of the biggest distributors and agents in the South of England for the 'Standard Triumph Motor Company', were 'Carrs Auto Services Ltd' of Tamworth Road, Croydon, and were well known by it's top brass. In fact Frank Carr (owner of Carrs Auto Services) was a personal friend of Alec Dick the MD of 'Standard Triumph'. Frank Carr sold Alec Dick his boat called 'Herald', and when Alec Dick was looking for a name for their newly designed car, he thought his new boat name would ideally fit the bill ...... and so came about the 'Triumph Herald'.   (above) Joint hire fleet lineup of Standard's and Triumph's of 'Carrs Auto Services Ltd', (except for the aircraft tractor), in front of a lineup of aircraft of 'Air Couriers Ltd'. Picture c1952.

(below) the local pub 'The Propeller'. Built in 1936 and demolished in February 2007. The two pictures are as it was in the 1960's which was how it had looked for many years. The other picture underneath was taken in 1963 of a Territorial Army demonstration with a 3.5inch gun to help recruitment.     The (above) picture is how it looked in the last days as the Propeller pub

(above) the '115' AEC 'Regency Type' London Transport bus terminating at the Airport. (below) Waddon railway station with 'Croydon Airport' named on it.