And the South African Airmail Centenary

27 Dec 1911 – 27 Dec 2011

One hundred years ago the African Aviation Syndicate devoted a fortnight from the 12 December 1911 to further promote their passion for flight in South Africa

It is hard to imagine a time when most people had not had any live exposure to the wonder of flight. The syndicate, consisting of Guy Livingstone, Cecil Compton-Patterson and my great-grandfather Evelyn Frederick “Bok” Driver, owned two aircraft.

The first, a Farman-type Paterson biplane manufactured by Liverpool Motor House Ltd, was 10 metres in length and span and was powered by a 50 HP Gnome engine. A replica built by Ben Rodriguez can be viewed at the Swartkops Museum in Pretoria. In Kimberley, four kilometres off the N8 on General van der Spuy Drive, a national monument holds a replica in a hangar on the site where the African Aviation Syndicate would later start the first flying school in South Africa. This endeavour eventually led to the formation of the SAAF with the blessing of General JC Smuts. Another fine replica is on view at the Sci Bono Science Centre in Newtown, Gauteng.

The second aircraft, primarily flown by Bok, was a Bleriot XI similar to the one that was flown across the English Channel by Louis Bleriot on 25 July 1909. The aircraft has a wingspan of 8.6 metres and was remarkably conventional in layout and control, with the exception of the use of wing-warping for lateral control as opposed to ailerons. The flying surfaces were covered by Continental Rubber fabric, over which Bok and his wife often laboured. The Bleriot XI was powered by a 3-cylinder fan-shape Anzani motor developing a whopping 23 HP. It drove a 2 metre wooden propeller of 0.8 metres pitch at 1350rpm, giving the 310kg aircraft a cruise speed of 30 knots!

The assembly, repair and modification to the aircraft were carried out by the syndicate members. Both aircraft would later be rebuilt from wrecks by the aviators during a time when about one in four flights in the world resulted in the destruction of the aircraft, and the lifespan of a pilot was miserably short. The resourcefulness, tenacity and determination of these pioneers was remarkable.

Bok was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1887. He attended Hilton College and SACS, where his rugby-playing prowess earned him his nickname. On 1 August, 1911 he earned Aviator’s Certificate No. 110 of the Fédération Aeronautique International.

Bok’s grandson, Dr Jon Driver-Jowitt of Cape Town, provided the following details.  He explains  how, on 11 and 12 September 1911, his grandfather took part in the Royal Mail Aerial Postal Service flown to mark the coronation of King George V. The mail carried letters for the Royal family, and one addressed to the King, signed by the directors and pilot aviators of the Grahame-White Aviation Company. Bok flew with Clement Gresswell, an Englishman, and Gustav Hamel, of Scandinavian descent. Bok carried most of the mail in his Farman biplane, 11 bags of mail on three flights.

This included specially designed postcards signed by Bok. There was also a letter, signed by the director and aviators of the Grahame-White Aviation Company, in which they wrote: “We believe this important event will become historical and its developments will lead to a communication between the peoples of the world.” The flight was from Hendon aerodrome to Windsor and on his return Bok landed at Nazeing Common, North London 30 minutes later.

By careful organisation 100,000 letters and postcards addressed to nearly every country in the world were delivered using a total of 720 flying miles.

A feature of the aviation fortnight was to be the first airmail flight in South Africa, an official mail service with the consent of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, based on the Hendon to Windsor flights a few months before. This post was opened on Thursday, December 21 and closed at 8pm on 26 December 1911.

The mail was limited to special copyright postcards depicting Bok’s Bleriot monoplane flying over Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background.

The first airmail flight in South Africa was scheduled for the morning of December 27, but was postponed because of heavy rain and so Bok took off at 7.15pm from Kenilworth racecourse, landing at Oldham’s Field in Muizenberg seven and a half minutes later. He handed over the mail to the local postmaster, listened to congratulatory speeches and then took on board the Kenilworth mailbags for the return flight, which he accomplished in twelve and a half minutes. A large crowd gave South Africa’s first aerial postman a great reception as he landed. This made him the only aviator to have flown the inaugural airmail service in two countries.

Bok flew a second mail from Kenilworth to Muizenberg on 2 January 1912.

In 1914 Bok went to England and was given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps. In 1915 he was sent to German South West Africa (now Namibia) as a military pilot, but a year later he began to suffer ill health. He died on his farm in Tylden near Ladysmith in Natal on 22 July 1946.

The next time you leave Surfers’ Corner, Muizenberg, in your Kombi with the longboards strapped to the roof and your bronzed beach babe staring adoringly at you from the passenger seat, take a moment to find the Police Museum on Main Road.  As you travel towards Kalk Bay it is on your right. The building was originally the post office and was where the first airmail was delivered. If you route northwards out of Muizenberg on Main Road, you will find Oldham Field, between the road and Zandvlei, opposite the old railway station where Bok landed with the first South African airmail 100 years ago.

The flying gene runs deep in Bok’s family. He used to take his son, Lynne, flying from the age of three, which so shocked his wife, Minnie, that she eventually remarried a sensible, non-flying type, Dr Harold “Heli” Jowitt. Having flown at such a young age in 1912, Lynne outlived anyone else who had flown that long ago.

Lynne Driver-Jowitt’s son, Jon Driver-Jowitt, is a renowned orthopaedic surgeon in Newlands and has flown glider and powered aircraft recreationally his whole life. Jon’s son, Simon Driver-Jowitt, was a southern African bush pilot with many a tale to tell, and now flies Boeing 747-400s for Nippon Cargo Airlines. Jon, Simon and I all learnt to fly powered aircraft on Z-MFC, a J3 cub owned by the Mashonaland Flying Club at Charles Prince Airport in Harare. I hope that my children Ashleigh, Nicholas and Kai, will one day do the same.

Ab-initio  instruction, many happy years flying to the most beautiful parts of the Southern African bush and the RV-8  ZU-LUS that I have built, bear testament to the crazy aviation fanaticism with which I, Bok’s other great-grandson, am joyfully afflicted. Nearly 14 happy years flying most of the types for SAA are also a dream come true.

I find it fascinating that Bok’s Bleriot monoplane and the RV-8 share the same configuration a century apart!