Tennyson Down
TENNYSON DOWN: Temporary Landing Ground
Location: On the south coast of the island, just E of the Needles
Period of operation: 16th July 1910
Note: The first two pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©. The local area and area views are from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: This monument, looked after by the National Trust, is dedicated to the actor/aviator Robert Lorraine. He is credited for being the first aviator to land on the Isle of Wight. It seems he was flying a Farman biplane, and without much if any doubt he departed from SOUTHBOURNE AERODROME east of Bournemouth on the 16th July 1910. This was the last day of the International Aviation Meeting being held there from the 11th to the 16th July.
This venue is also going down in history for being where the first fatal aircraft crash happened in the U.K. The victim being C S Rolls of Rolls-Royce fame. (See seperate listing).
He was then a famous actor but had become very interested in powered aviation, learning to fly at the Blériot school at Pau in central France. His main claim to fame at that time was when he became the first pilot to fly across the Irish Sea, a couple of months later on the 11th September 1910. He did not quite make it, ditching in the sea a couple of hundred yards or so from the shoreline.
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