Clerk’s Notes – January 2025

Firstly, allow me to wish all Coachmakers far and wide a very happy New Year from the Clerk. I thought for this month’s notes I would switch tack slightly to focus on our connection to the aerospace industry whilst maintaining a hook into my passion for music and including some relevant (to our readership), interesting facts about a certain year.

The theme and year I have chosen is that of 1965 and the movie Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

A fairly balanced and stable year (remember them?!) 1965 gave us:
• Introduction of the new ‘Worboys’ Committee’ road signs.
• Sir Winston Churchill died aged 90 at his home, 28 Hyde Park Gate in London.
• Confederation of British Industry founded.
• Stanley Matthews plays his final First Division game, at the record age of 50 years and five days. He became the first footballer to be awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s honours.
• The Government publicly announces cancellation of the BAC TSR-2 nuclear bomber aircraft project. The prototype broke the sound barrier on 22nd February.
• The government announces plans for the introduction of a blood alcohol limit for drivers in its clampdown on drink driving.
• A Royal Air Force Handley Page Hastings crashes at Little Baldon, Oxfordshire, just after take-off from RAF Abingdon on a parachute training exercise, killing all 41 men on board.
• The Queen’s Award to Industry for export and technological advancements is created.
• The Magic Roundabout makes its debut on BBC One.
• Corgi Toys introduces the all time best-selling model car, James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 from the film Goldfinger.
• The Beatles’ final live UK tour concludes with two performances at the Capitol, Cardiff.
• A 70mph speed limit is imposed on UK roads.

The movie Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines is a 1965 British epic period comedy film that satirises the early years of aviation.

One of the most important moments in aviation history also played a role in influencing the production of the movie. One-hundred-and-ten years ago this month, No. 8 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at Brooklands. Equipped with the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c. the squadron moved to Fort Grange, Gosport for further training, and crossed to France on 15th April 1915 to St-Omer. While its main equipment was the B.E.2c, it also operated a fighter flight between May 1915 and early 1916 equipped with a mixture of aircraft, including the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.8 and the Bristol Scout, while it also evaluated the prototype Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9, a modified B.E.2 that carried the observer/gunner in a nacelle ahead of the aircraft’s propeller.

Although the film is not based around aerial combat some of the earliest aviators started their careers in No 8. Squadron. The film starts in 1910, following a fictitious air race from London to Paris, with a £10,000 (equivalent to £1,300,000 in 2025!) prize, intended to prove that Britain is “number one in the air”. The film is noted for its spectacular flying scenes, featuring dozens of period, accurate, life-size working aeroplanes.

Released in the UK by 20th Century Fox on 16th June 1965, the film was both a widespread critical and commercial success. It was nominated for three BAFTA Awards, winning for Best British Costume Design – Colour, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The film also received three Golden Globe Award nomination, including for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

The film is notable for reproductions of 1910-era aircraft, replicas built by Personal Plane Services at White Waltham/Booker, The Hampshire Aeroplane Club at Southampton, and Sussex Aviation at Portsmouth, or Miles at Shoreham. They included a tri-plane, monoplanes, biplanes and also Horatio Phillips’s 20-winged multiplane from 1904. The RAF advisor to the film, Air Commodore Wheeler insisted on authentic materials but allowed the use of modern engines and modifications necessary to ensure safety. Of 20 types built in 1964 in preparation at £5,000 each, six could fly, flown by six stunt pilots and maintained by 14 mechanics. The race take-off scene where seven aircraft are in the air at once included a composite addition. Flying conditions were monitored with aerial scenes filmed before 10am or in early evening when the air was least turbulent, for the replicas, true to the originals, were flimsy – and control, especially in the lateral plane, tended to be marginal. If the weather was poor, interiors or other incidental sequences were substituted.

While each aircraft was an accurate reproduction, some ‘impersonated’ other types. For instance, The Phoenix Flyer was a Bristol Boxkite built by FG Miles Engineering Co. at Ford, Sussex, representing the Curtiss biplane of 1910. Annakin had apparently expressed a desire to have a Wright Flyer in the film. The Bristol (a British derivative of the French 1909 Farman biplane) was chosen instead because it shared a common general layout with a Wright or Curtiss pusher biplane of the era, and had an excellent reputation for tractability. For the impersonation, the replica had ‘The Phoenix Flyer’ painted on its outer rudder surfaces and was also called a ‘Gruber-Newton Flyer’ adding the name of its primary backer to the nomenclature; although the American pilot character, Orvil Newton inaccurately describes his aircraft to Patricia Rawnsley as a “Curtiss with an Anzani engine”.

Coachmakers’ Automotive Dinner – 20th March 2025 at Grocers’ Hall

Join the Master and fellow Coachmakers for an evening of fellowship and friendship at the Automotive Dinner at Grocers’ Hall, the home of one of the Great 12 Livery Companies of the City of London, indeed number two in the order of precedence.
Our guest speakers promise a rich and enjoyable perspective on their careers:

With more than 30 years’ experience at Jaguar in Kensington, Michael Quinn is the grandson of Sir William Lyons – known as ‘Mr Jaguar’, the co-founder in 1922 of the Swallow Sidecar Company, which became Jaguar Cars Limited after the Second World War – therefore his passion for all things Jaguar is unrivalled.

John McLaren is Chairman of the Barchester Group. He began his career as a diplomat, both in the Foreign Office in London and in the British Embassy in Tokyo. He then worked in investment banking, and in venture capital, where he was a General Partner with Hambrecht and Quist Venture Partners in San Francisco. He has also been Director of Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank and Barchester, he has advised a wide range of companies on major mergers – including Volkswagen and Rolls Royce – and acquisition transactions, including DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Nissan, BBA and Siemens. He is also Non-Executive Chairman of Eagle Cars and commissioned and still owns Eagle No1.

Dress: Black tie or Service Dress with decorations
Tickets: £140

Tickets are selling fast so please book here as soon as possible.

The Coachmakers’ Banquet 2025

The spectacular backdrop of Mansion House will be our venue for this year’s Banquet on Monday 9th June 2025.

Mansion House is a well-known prestigious venue that the Livery has not visited for several years, so has the attraction of novelty for the many who have joined the Company during that period, as well as providing a change for regular attendees. The plan is for a prestigious white-tie (optional black tie) Banquet. There is also resonance with Mansion House being the home of the Lord Mayor, this year himself a Coachmaker and we are hoping he will attend.

Tickets will be available very soon but please plan early as it is anticipated they will be snapped up in a frenzy of excitement!

City news & events

The Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch

For City Livery Club members, come and join City Livery Club at the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch on Thursday 10th April 2025.

President Alderman Professor Emma Edhem invites you to join her at this huge event spread over Guildhall, in aid of veterans of His Majesty’s Armed Forces.

Guests are welcome to stay for the duration of the event, 11.45am to 3pm, and take part in all the activities available.
Tickets cost £110.00 per person and include a welcome glass of Champagne, lunch (unlimited curry, plus dessert and chocolate) and drinks (unlimited beer and wine, plus soft drinks and coffee).

Please sign into the members’ area on the website to view more details and book the event online.

For those non-members of the City Livery Club more information and tickets can be found here.

In conclusion

The composer of the music for Those Magnificent Men, Ronald Alfred ‘Ron’ Goodwin (1925 –2003) was an English composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored more than 70 films in a career lasting over 50 years. Goodwin was born in Plymouth and learned to play the piano and trumpet from the age of five, which allowed him to join the school band. When he was nine, the family moved to London, there he studied the trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music.

Whilst working as a copyist, he formed his own orchestra in his spare time and began arranging and conducting recordings for more than 50 artists, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He became famous for his scores for Where Eagles Dare, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, 633 Squadron, Battle of Britain and The Miss Marple films.

Two interesting facts: one of the most recognised piece of music of recent years, Goodwin’s score for the 1966 film ‘The Trap’ is now used by the BBC as the theme to the London Marathon coverage. A 30-second variation of his 1969 composition for the film ‘Monte Carlo or Bust’ is used as the intro for the BBC Radio Four panel game I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.
Ron Goodwin was also a keen supporter of the City of London and was a Freeman of the City.

To hear the Royal Air Force Central Band play the theme tune to this iconic film please click the YouTube link below:
https://youtu.be/Ll4sPMfegno