Sir John Alcock Attends Heyhouses Endowed Church of England School

Posted June 16, 2025 by Ed

Captain Sir John William Alcock KBE DSC, born on 5 November 1892, was a British aviator who served with distinction in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. He achieved international fame in June 1919 when, alongside his navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, he completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight. The pair flew from St John’s, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland, in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber, covering more than 1,800 miles in just over sixteen hours. Their successful landing marked a historic milestone in aviation, demonstrating the potential of long-distance air travel and securing them both a place in aeronautical history.

Later that same year, on 19 December 1919, Alcock was killed in a flying accident in France while delivering a new Vickers aircraft to the Paris Air Show. His untimely death came only six months after his record-breaking achievement, yet his contribution to early aviation remains enduringly significant.

Portrait of Captain Sir John William Alcock. Circa 1919

Captain Alcock was a pioneering aviator whose achievements in early flight helped to shape the course of modern aviation. He was probably born in the coach house adjoining Basford House on Seymour Grove, Firswood, Manchester. His family lived for 8 years in Lytham, where he attended Heyhouses School in Lytham St Annes from April 1900 until April 1905. His father worked for Sir Edward Hulton’s newspaper press, and the family later moved to Ladybarn, Fallowfield. Among his brothers was E. S. J. Alcock, who went on to become the chief flying instructor for BOAC in the late 1940s and had also learned to fly with John, later settling in Lytham St Annes.

Alcock’s fascination with flight began at the age of seventeen while working at the Empress Motor Works in Manchester. In 1910 he became assistant to Charles Fletcher, an early Manchester aviator, and to Norman Crossland, a motor engineer and founder of the Manchester Aero Club. Through this work he met the French pilot Maurice Ducrocq, a representative for Italian aero engine manufacturer Spirito Mario Viale. Ducrocq took Alcock on as a mechanic at Brooklands Aerodrome in Surrey, where Alcock learned to fly and earned his pilot’s licence in November 1912. He soon joined the Sunbeam Motor Car Company as a racing pilot and by the summer of 1914 was competing in air races, including a Hendon–Birmingham–Manchester return event in which he landed at Trafford Park Aerodrome before flying back to Hendon the same day.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Alcock enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service, initially serving as a warrant officer and instructor at the Royal Naval Flying School in Eastchurch, Kent. He was commissioned as a flight sub-lieutenant in December 1915 and was later posted to a squadron at Moudros on the island of Lemnos, Greece. There he designed and built the Alcock Scout, a makeshift fighter aircraft assembled from unused parts of other planes.

On 30 September 1917, while piloting a Sopwith Camel, Alcock engaged three enemy aircraft, forcing two to crash into the sea and earning the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery. Later that year he flew a Handley Page bomber in a strategic raid on Constantinople but was forced to return after an engine failure near Gallipoli. After continuing for more than sixty miles on a single engine, the second failed, and the aircraft ditched into the sea near Suvla Bay. Alcock and his two crew members swam for an hour before being captured by Ottoman forces and held as prisoners of war until the Armistice in 1918.

Following his release, Alcock retired from the Royal Air Force in March 1919, shortly before undertaking the historic transatlantic flight that would make his name immortal in aviation history.

The British aviators Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitton Brown who completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy bomber plane, 1890 miles in just over 16 hours. Shortly after their return they were photographed with their aeroplane on a visit to Vickers Sports. Both men were subsequently knighted. 23 August 1919. © Alamy

Following the end of the First World War, Captain Sir John William Alcock became a test pilot for the Vickers aircraft company, where he accepted the challenge of achieving the first non-stop transatlantic flight. Partnering with navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, he set out to demonstrate the potential of long-distance air travel at a time when aviation was still in its infancy.

On 14 June 1919, at 1.45 p.m. local time, Alcock and Brown took off from St John’s, Newfoundland, in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber. Sixteen hours and twelve minutes later, in the early morning of 15 June, they landed in Derrygimla Bog near Clifden, Ireland, having covered 1,980 miles (3,190 kilometres) without stopping. The journey was fraught with danger—dense cloud, severe turbulence, icing on the wings, and multiple instrument failures forced the men to rely on skill, instinct, and determination to stay on course.

Their successful flight won them the Daily Mail’s £10,000 prize—equivalent to over half a million pounds in modern value—and secured their place in aviation history as pioneers of transatlantic flight. The achievement demonstrated the extraordinary progress of aeronautical engineering in the years following the war and proved that intercontinental air travel was possible.

Tragically, Alcock’s triumph was short-lived. On 18 December 1919, while piloting the new Vickers Viking amphibious aircraft to the first post-war aeronautical exhibition in Paris, he crashed in dense fog near Cottévrard, close to Rouen in Normandy. He sustained a fractured skull and never regained consciousness, dying the following day in hospital at Rouen.

Alcock was laid to rest in Southern Cemetery, Manchester, where his grave is marked by a large stone memorial commemorating his bravery, innovation, and lasting contribution to British aviation.