Weeke Down
WEEKE DOWN: Exhibition of flying
Operated by: Gustav Hamel
Location: Just W of Winchester city centre
Period of operation: 14th May 1914
A MICHAEL T HOLDER SHORT GALLERY
NOTES: After giving exhibitions of flying at SWAYTHLING, just north of Southampton city centre on the 9th and 13th May 1914, Gustav Hamel then made this exhibition on the 14th.
To date it seems that no exact location for this display by Hamel is known?
The full article is given in four parts in the listing for SWAYTHLING, which I can recommend reading.
In those days Gustav Hamel really was a super-star. Thousands of people would turn up, even at around dawn, to watch his displays. The early hours of the morning, and indeed the evening of course, being when the winds are usually light or often calm.
More details of Gustav Hamel are included in the SWAYTHLING listing.
A TRAGIC END
Barely a week and a half later, on the 23rd May, after collecting a new Morane-Saulnier monoplane from Villacoublay in France, he disappeared over the English Channel and drowned. A body was found by French fishermen off the coast near Boulogne, but they didn't retrieve it. However, the description they gave of the clothing, and a road map of southern England, seemed to confirm that the body was of Gustav Hamel. Then just twenty-four years old.
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