AND TO START THE BALL ROLLING WE WILL START,

WITH  P836 ROLAND.CLARKE UPTON  ,

PETTY OFFICER MECHANIC

R N A S  ARMOURED CAR SECTION,

BELOW ARE HIS TRIO OF MEDALS ,

AND 2 IMAGES TAKEN FROM HIS SERVICE PAPERS

THE NEXT   SET OF IMAGES BELOW ARE  IMAGES OF A SOPWITH TABLOID SEAPLANE ,

GETTING AIRBOURNE  at Yantlet Creek  which runs  from the Medway to the Thames. The Creek was filled up, and had a road across it for 40 years until 1823, when the Lord Mayor ordered it to be again reopened, so as to give about eight feet navigation for barges at spring tide

THE IMAGE IS A   WATERCOLOUR ON  THICK CARD,

AND THE FIRST SHOWS ,

WRITTEN ON THE PAINTING  AT THE BOTTOM RIGHT ,

"SOPWITH TABLOID  EXPERIMENTAL 10 R N A S  IS OF GRAIN KENT"

            "THE HOOK"                                           "  1915                                      REF EASTCHURCH SHORT BROs "

THE IMAGE BELOW  SHOWS THE WRITING IN ,

                    BETTER DETAIL

THE IMAGE BELOW SHOWS A  PROTOTYPE  HOOK  ATTACHMENT

                                                  POINT ,

                                          ON THE TOP WING

THE PHOTOGRAPH BELOW SHOWS A SEAPLANE BEING  WINCHED ABOARD A ROYAL NAVY WARSHIP,

   BEARING IN MIND THESE WERE THE DAYS BEFORE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AS WE KNOW THEM,

    THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY TO  RECOVER THE AIRCRAFT AFTER IT LANDED  ON THE SEA,

    THE  PHOTO BELOW AND RIGHT  IS TAKEN FROM THE BACK OF THE PAINTING ,

      AND SHOWS THE RELEVENT DETAILS  OF THE AIRCRAFT CONCERNED AS WRITTEN DOWN BY THE ARTIST?

THE DIMENSIONS OF THE BROOCH ARE AS   FOLLOWS,

APROXIMATELY ,

3.5 CMS FROM  TOP TO BOTTOM,

AND,

3.00  CMS ACCROSS THE MIDDLE

The RNAS engaged in interservice rivalry on land as well as in the air, possessing for a time the UK's only mechanised land forces in the form of the RNAS Armoured Car Section made up of squadrons of Rolls-Royce Armoured Cars. Commanded by Commander Charles Samson, the section was originally equipped with unarmoured touring cars and intended to provide line of communications security and to pick up aircrew who had been forced to land in hostile territory. Samson saw the possibilities when he armed one vehicle with a Maxim gun and ambushed a German car near Cassel on 4 September 1914. He then had a shipbuilders in Dunkirk add boilerplate to his Rolls Royce and Mercedes vehicles. The new armoured car squadrons were soon used to great effect forming part of Naval mechanised raiding columns against the Germans. By November 1914 the Section had become the Royal Naval Armoured Car Division (RNACD) eventually expanding to 20 squadrons. As trench warfare developed, the armoured cars could no longer operate on the Western Front and were redeployed to other theatres including the Middle East, Romania and Russia. In the summer of 1915 the RNACD was disbanded

Below are images of a Victorian/George the 5th             oak Deskstand once owned by ,

Commander Charles Rumney Samson R.N.A.S,

Later Aircommodore C.R. Samson R A F