For the record, Nov 4th, 1909

[Major Nikon]

[MADem]

1. What a fascinating fellow....

John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara GBE MC PC (8 February 1884 – 17 May 1964) was an English aviation pioneer and Conservative politician. He was the first Englishman to pilot a heavier-than-air machine under power in England, and he served as Minister of Transport and Minister of Aircraft Production during World War II....On 30 October 1909, flying the Short Biplane No. 2, he flew a circular mile and won a 1,000 pound prize offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. On 4 November 1909, as a joke to prove that pigs could fly,[2] he put a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his aeroplane. This may have been the first live cargo flight by aeroplane. With Charles Rolls, he would later make the first ascent in a spherical gas balloon, which had been made in England by the Short brothers.[citation needed]

On 8 March 1910, Moore-Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1;[3] his car also bore the number-plate FLY 1. However, only four months later, his friend Charles Rolls was killed in a flying accident and Moore-Brabazon's wife persuaded him to give up flying. .... With the outbreak of war, Moore-Brabazon returned to flying, joining the Royal Flying Corps. He received a special-reserve commission as a second lieutenant (on probation) in the RFC on 2 December 1914, in the appointment of flying officer (assistant equipment officer), and was confirmed in his rank on 11 February 1915.[6][7] [8] He was promoted to lieutenant on 19 February 1915 and was appointed an equipment officer on 31 March, with the temporary rank of captain.[9][10] On 1 September 1915, he was promoted to the substantive rank of captain, with a special temporary promotion to major on 18 May 1916. [11] [12]

He served on the Western Front where he played a key role in the development of aerial photography and reconnaissance. On 1 April 1918, when the Royal Flying Corps merged with the Royal Naval Air Service to form the Royal Air Force, Moore-Brabazon was appointed as a staff officer (first class) and made a temporary lieutenant-colonel.[13] He was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel in the RAF on 1 January 1919 in recognition of his wartime services, relinquishing his commission that year.[14]
Moore-Brabazon finished the war with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was decorated with the Military Cross (MC) on 1 January 1917[15] and was also twice mentioned in dispatches, on 15 October 1915[16] and on 13 November 1916.[17] He was further decorated as a Knight of the Légion d'honneur in February 1916.[18]

MUCH much more at link....!!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moore-Brabazon,_1st_Baron_Brabazon_of_Tara