[BIOGRAPHY]
Harry Angus MakayPascoe was born on 29th March 1909 at Carlisle, Cumbria. In his pre-war life he worked for his father, Solomon Pascoe as a pattern cutter in the family womens' clothes business which was based in Rochford. His mother Hilda and his two sisters, Elizabeth & Florence also worked in the business. Like many well to do young men of his generation he was able to take up flying at the local flying club.
He qualified for his civilian flying licence (17711) at Southend Flying Club on 9th April 1939 on an Avro Cadet with a Genet 140hp engine. He was also a member of the Civil Air Guard. He was at the time resident at The Towans, Hall Road, Rochford. He is listed on his Royal Aero Club card as a 'manufacturer' We have copies of his two RAeC membership cards and his 1939 licence photograph.Also with the group is Harry's Southend Aero Club card for 1969. Harry died at age 84 as a deservedly wealthy man on 2nd January 1994 with a public probate declaration of £335,793.00
[PATHFINDER TRAINING]
Being a qualified civilian pilot of 30 years of age before the war, he was in September 1939 at the declaration of war slightly outside the normal age criteria for operational crews who were generally under 25, but after joining the RAF as an airman he was clearly identified as a valuable asset for pilot training. He was thus commissioned in 1942 and during WW2 served as a pilot trainer in several Bomber Command operational conversion units including the training unit of 8 Group (PFF) at RAF WORBOYS. During this time he gained over 2,000 hours while training pilots who were to fly Pathfinder Force Lancasters in specialist night flying techniques. ( research continues )
Toward the end of WW2 he was posted as CFI to No 6 (Pilots) Advanced Training Unit at RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire. During the war this unit trained 5,444 pilots who won 704 gallantry awards & 4 VICTORIA CROSSES.
He was awarded the KCVSA in June 1945 and the AFC in September 1945. Like many officers he wore a TYPE II M.I.D. emblem on his war medal to denote this. The later Silver Oak Leaf spray was only introduced very late into the war and as such is rarely seen on original WW2 groups. Included are Harry Pascoe's original uniform ribbon tapes which confirm the normal KCVSA wear criteria as they exibit an MID 'oak leaf' emblem.
Just after the war he was one of the founding directors of Channel Airways the then pioneer aviation business which for many years operated Dragon Rapide (ex-RAF Dominies) eight seat cabin bi-planes on the UK (Shoreham) to Jersey, Channel Islands route.
[FORCED LANDING ON ST AUBIN'S BEACH, JERSEY]
It was to be during one of these flights in late July 1954 when the then Captain Harry Pascoe was obliged through bad weather at Jersey airport and low fuel state to force land his Rapide aircraft (G-AKRN) with eight passengers on St Aubin's beach.
Included in this most interesting assembly is an entire JERSEY WEEKLY POST newspaper for 31st July 1954 which carries a full account of the previous weekend's events with pictures of the beached aircraft being refuelled on the beach and Captain Pasco who as well as being the chief pilot for Channel Airlines was also a joint owner of the company.
It was with not small amounts of humour that the passengers noted they had been delivered almost to the doorstep of their beachside & promenade hotels rather than to the airport and being within 100 yards of the promenade gathered their luggage and walked to their accommodation.
[A SEVERE REPRIMAND]
However, the Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation didn't share the humour of the situation when on 7th October 1954 they wrote a VERY stiff letter to Captain Pascoe outlining in no uncertain terms that by operating the flight outside the relevant weather minima he had seriously infringed Article 17B of the air navigation order. This basically states that your intended airfield of destination ( and it's alternate ) must not be outside the meteorological minima. This trip to Jersey was actually his third similar sortie of the day, so having already encountered difficult conditions he was well aware that the weather at the destination airfield was at best very marginal. It was almost certainly due to his then very recent and exemplary wartime service record and his being a director of Channel Airlines that Harry managed to retain his flying licence, as this breach of regulations was actually very serious.
Included with the grouping is the original reprimanding letter !
( Shown above with the original Buckingham Palace AFC award letter.)
An excellent AFC (1945) and KCVSA group with original papers, pathfinder wing, pictures and the original issue 'brown medal box'.
SOLD