ffice, and from
the proceeds of these he was able to meet the costs of his experiments.
His title to be called the founder of military aviation in Great Britain
must be shared with others, especially with Captain Bertram Dickson,
also of the Royal Field Artillery, who was the first British officer to
fly. After seeing the flying at the Rheims meeting in August 1909,
Captain Dickson procured a Henri Farman biplane, and learned, at
Chalons, to fly it. He was a natural flyer, as Captain Fulton was a
natural engineer. During 1910 he attended many aviation meetings in
France; at Tours and elsewhere he held his own in competition with some
of the most famous of French aviators. His ruling passion was not sport,
but patriotism; he was chiefly concerned to put the aeroplane as a
weapon into the hands of his country. In the summer of 1910 he made the
acquaintance of Sir George White of Bristol, and joined the staff of the
British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. At the army manoeuvres of that
autumn he appeared, a herald of the future, on a Bristol biplane, but
found some difficulty in persuading the officers in command to make use
of his services. The cavalry, in particular, were not friendly to the
aeroplane, which, it was believed, would frighten the horses; and when a
reconnaissance flight was arranged and had to be put off because the
wind was high and gusty, aviation fell in esteem. Nevertheless, some of
Captain Dickson's flights served to show how an aeroplane might help an
army. It was natural enough that the cavalry should prefer to carry on
the work of reconnaissance in the usual way. Men believe in the weapons
they are skilled to handle. When the rapier was introduced into England
in the sixteenth century, it found no friends among the masters of the
broadsword; its vogue was gained among young gentlemen educated in
France and Italy. To let an aeroplane attempt their work would have
seemed to the cavalry like dropping the bone to catch at the shadow. But
youth will be served, and in a very few years the shadow cast by Captain
Dickson's aeroplane spread and multiplied and covered the field of
battle. His own career came to an untimely end. A few weeks after the
manoeuvres he suffered a severe accident at the Milan aviation meeting,
where he performed some of those admirable glides from a height, with
the engine off, for which he had become famous. Just after one of these
he had opened the throttle of his engine, and was r