23 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

I am reading a book called "Heroes of the Sunlit Sky" by Arch Whitehouse (Doubleday & Company, NY, 1967), which as biographies of various WW1 pilots. The Soubiran and Rhodes-Moorhouse (US and English respectively) were mentioned as having experience in motor racing before serving in the war. The only information I have about either of them is that in 1906 Rhodes-Moorhouse was charged with manslaughter after killing a child during a motorcycle race on Brighton Beach. Can anyone add any further information?

[Vitesse2]

The Times Online Archive has several references to WB Rhodes-Moorhouse (who died of his wounds after a 1915 bombing raid on Courtrai) as having been involved in aviation from at least 1909. But nothing about motor sport. He was 27 at the time of his death (old for an RFC 2nd Lt), so would have been in his late teens in 1906 - motorcycle racing not inconceivable.

[Tim Murray]

Not 'proper' racing, but this anecdote appears in Under My Bonnet by Neville Minchin (who was an undergraduate at Cambridge with Rhodes-Moorhouse):

A challenge between Van Raalte and Moorhouse resulted in their having a race through the main streets of Cambridge early one Sunday morning, which I'm sure will never be forgotten by those who were present. Moorhouse had a 90 h.p. chain-driven Grand Prix Fiat painted blue and called 'Linda' (a girl he afterwards married), Van Raalte a bright red 'Kaiserpreis' 140 Minerva, live axle.

It was a race from the Market Square to the station, about 1¼ to 1½ miles, the loser to pay all the fines. Sir George Clark, his brother 'Tubby' and I kept the crossroads, on the long straight stretch by the Roman Catholic Cathedral, clear and they passed us at about 85 mph. Van Raalte scored a fairly easy win. At the subsequent police court proceedings (fines about £40) the Chairman of the Bench made an attack on Rhodes-Moorhouse, saying what a worthless and good-for-nothing young man he was.

Five years later, when the whole world was ringing with the story of one of the bravest deeds ever done, the deliberate sacrifice of his life by the first airman V.C., Lieut. Rhodes-Moorhouse, I hope the magistrate felt sorry for what he had said.

Boddy's Brooklands history mentions Rhodes-Moorhouse racing 'Linda' there in 1909.

Edited by Tim Murray, 15 May 2009 - 20:26.

[Vitesse2]

Therefore 'Linda' was named after Linda Beatrice Morritt, who married Rhodes-Moorhouse on June 25th 1912 at St Paul's, Knightsbridge.

Throughout the 20s and 30s there are regular entries for Rhodes-Moorhouse in the "In Memoriam" column of The Times. The Rhodes-Moorhouses also produced a son - William Rhodes-Moorhouse can be found in various reports of rowing at Eton between 1929 and 1931.

Mrs Rhodes-Moorhouse can also be found in the list of entrants for the King's Cup air race in 1932 with a DH Gipsy Moth II (G-ABOA), piloted by her son.

In 1933 William Rhodes-Moorhouse (age 19) inherited estates in New Zealand valued at £250,000 In addition to rowing and flying he was also an enthusiastic winter sportsman. In 1936 he married Miss Amalia Demetriadi and by November 1939 had followed his late father into the RAF as a Pilot Officer. By July 1940 he had five kills and was gazetted DFC. William Rhodes-Moorhouse was killed on active service in September 1940.

Sources: The Times Online Archive and flightglobal.com

[Tim Murray]

Thanks, Richard, for filling in these fascinating details. I feel for poor Linda Rhodes-Moorhouse, who lost both her husband and her son to war.

[Vitesse2]

Exact date of death for William Rhodes-Moorhouse was September 6th 1940 - again from an In Memoriam (6/9/41). Another on the same date in 1943 indicates he was a member of 601 (County of London) Squadron, who flew Hurricanes and were based at Tangmere on September 6th 1940: they had returned there on September 2nd after a period at Debden and moved again on the 7th, this time to Exeter. [edit: 601 Squadron confirmed by several references in Flight International]

Mrs Rhodes-Moorhouse seems to have had an interest in coursing - her dog Roving Minstrel won the Waterloo Cup in 1950, while a letter in The Times of August 6th 1959 reveals that she was a passenger in the first aeroplane to carry three people across the English Channel. The pilots were her husband and JH Ledeboer: they flew from Douai in a Breguet biplane, but crashed near Ashford. Mrs Rhodes-Moorhouse emerged from the wreckage "unruffled, unaided and unhurt."

This redoubtable lady - I share your feelings, Tim - passed away on December 3rd 1973, aged 86. Her address was given as Mortham Tower, Barnard Castle.

http://www.durham-pa...YWORD=Mediaeval

There is also presumably a family connection with this hotel:

http://www.themorrit....uk/history.htm

But of course this has nothing to do with motor racing ....

Edited by Vitesse2, 16 May 2009 - 11:15.

[Vitesse2]

Both Rhodes-Moorhouses (father and son) are buried in the grounds of the family home, Parnham House, near Beaminster in Dorset. On July 3rd 1965 there was a charity fete - opened by his widow - in memory of Rhodes-Moorhouse senior on the 50th anniversary of his posthumous Victoria Cross (the first awarded to an airman). There was also a parade, at which it was hoped there would be an RAF fly-past. Rhodes-Moorhouse's VC and other memorabilia (loaned by the Imperial War Museum) were on display.

Source: Flight International June 24th 1965 pp1022-23

The actual event was not reported by Flight International, but the Western Gazette might have done. And it looks like the IWM might be worth a try too ....

The fete was in aid of the Mental Health Association, who owned Parnham House at the time:

http://www.thedorset.../place/P030.htm

[Simon Taylor]

I have researched the Rhodes-Moorhouse family a bit because I own a 1937 Derby Bentley with special sedanca coupe body by Gurney Nutting. It was built as a one-off to the order of the Rothschild family, but in 1938 Gurney Nutting built a second example for William Rhodes-Moorehouse, which is now in a small collection in California. The family's story is a fascinating one and, although much of it is way off-topic, it may bear repeating here.

The family wealth came from owning huge swathes of New Zealand, where a great-grandfather was an early settler and later a prominent politician. The WWI pilot, William Rhodes-Moorhouse senior, lived mainly in England and, confirming Neville Minchin's story, is recorded as having been summonsed as a Cambridge undergraduate for driving his 90hp Fiat racing car around the university at anti-social speeds. This is the car he also raced at Brookland in 1909. The same year he first flew an aeroplane, becoming a significant pioneer aviator. With James Radley he designed and built the Radley-Moorhouse aeroplane, shipped it to the USA and took part in several American air races, winning the San Francisco Harbour Prize in 1910.

When World War I broke out he immediately joined the Royal Flying Corps, and became the first airman to be awarded the Victoria Cross. In a daring single-handed raid over occupied Belgium in 1915, he few low over a well-defended railway crossing and successfully dropped his single bomb on it. During this sortie he was repeatedly shot, particularly from a German gun position on top of a church tower near the railway crossing. He was very badly wounded, but managed to fly his damaged aircraft home at low alititude. He landed it safely, but when his crew ran over to it they found him unconscious at the controls, having lost a lot of blood. He revived sufficiently to submit his report, but died five days later. The postumous VC was awarded a few months afterwards.

His son, also called William but known as Willie, was born only a few months before his father's death. He grew up surrounded by stories of his father's deeds, and unsurprisingly became passionate about aircraft. While a schoolboy at Eton he would cycle over to Hendon aerodrome for flying lessons, and earned his pilot's licence while still a 16-year-old fifth-former. He was also a proficient skier, and at 21 he represented Great Britain as a ski-jumper in the 1936 Winter Olympics.

His father's fortune was held in trust for him, and when he inherited it he immediately bought a very dramatic Mercedes-Benz 500K with English body by Windovers. This car was sold in a UK auction a year or so ago, and featured before the sale in a Classic & Sports Car feature by Mick Walsh. He replaced the 500K in April 1938, when he was 23, with the second of the Rothschild Bentley Gurney Nutting sedancas.

After World War II was declared in 1939, Willie flew Blenheims and then Hurricanes with the famous 601 squadron. In July 1940, having already shot down five enemy aircraft, he was awarded the DFC. One report I have found says the DFC was specifically for an incident in which he forced down an enemy aircraft, landed alongside it and disarmed its crew of two. I would be fascinated to hear more about this extraordinary feat....

During that hot August of 1940, as the Battle of Britain raged, he shot down seven more aircraft. But at 9.30am on September 6th 1940 his luck ran out, and his Hurricane was shot down over Tunbridge Wells. His body was recovered, and his ashes interred with those of his father at one of the family homes, Parnham Park in Dorset.

William's wife, Willie's mother, wrote a book in 1960 called Kaleidoscope 1886 - 1960, about the lives of her husband and son, also with many personal flying memories as she frequently flew with William in those early days. I have never been able to get hold of it, although I missed a copy on eBay by a couple of days. If anyone happens to stumble across a copy and feels like letting me know I would be extremely grateful.

For those not interested in flying exploits, apologies for the length of the above. But father and son were clearly both pretty remarkable people. Anybody know anything more?

Edited by Simon Taylor, 16 May 2009 - 15:22.

[Doug Nye]

William Henry Rhodes-Moorhouse was born in 1914 at Brompton Square, London, and grew up at the family home, Parnham House, Beaminster. At Eton he won his wings as a private pilot at 17 and kept his own light aeroplane at Heston. By the time he joined the RAF upon the outbreak of war he already had 1,000 hours in his logbook. He competed as a downhill skier in the 1937-38 Winter Olympics - fellow toff skiers were Max Aitken, Billy Fiske and Roger Bushell, all wartime pilots-to-be. Bushell was shot after leading 'The Great Escape'. Fiske burned fatally during the Battle of Britain - WR-M shot down in combat and only Aitken survived the war. They were all 601 Royal Auxiliary Air Force, 'The Millionaire's Squadron'.

Willie R-M earned the DFC early in the Battle of Britain. But his brother-in-law Richard Demetriadi was killed in combat on August 11, 1940, and Fiske the following week. I believe his ashes were laid on his VC father's grave on a hilltop overlooking Parnham House.

But did his Dad accidentally - or recklessly - kill a child pre-WW1 upon Brighton Beach? I can presently find no reference to confirm or deny.

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 16 May 2009 - 20:44.

[ReWind]

He competed as a downhill skier in the 1937-38 Winter Olympics - fellow toff skiers were Max Aitken, Billy Fiske and Roger Bushell.

Can you elaborate about those games? I thought the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen were the last before WWII.

Searching this index of Olympic athletes the only one of those mentioned I found is Billy Fiske.

[Doug Nye]

VERY good point. Drawn in haste from duff reference. They were chums from "the St Moritz scene".

DCN

[ensign14]

Presumably van Raalte up above is Noel van Raalte who went off to Indy?

[Tim Murray]

The very same.

[RAP]

"But did his Dad accidentally - or recklessly - kill a child pre-WW1 upon Brighton Beach? I can presently find no reference to confirm or deny."

Are we talking Brighton, Sussex ? If so I can't imagine a motor cycle on Brighton Beach - for those who don't know the town, the beach is 100% pebbles. There were of course the 1905 Speed Trials on Madeira Drive but I've never heard of a 1909 event.
RAP

[Tim Murray]

Here's a site with interesting information on Moorhouse's New Zealand antecedents:

http://www.knottingl...m_moorhouse.htm

[Vitesse2]

"But did his Dad accidentally - or recklessly - kill a child pre-WW1 upon Brighton Beach? I can presently find no reference to confirm or deny."

Are we talking Brighton, Sussex ? If so I can't imagine a motor cycle on Brighton Beach - for those who don't know the town, the beach is 100% pebbles. There were of course the 1905 Speed Trials on Madeira Drive but I've never heard of a 1909 event.
RAP

Brighton Beach, Coney Island perhaps? There was a trotting track there which was used for motor sport from 1902-15.

In which case the fatality might be down to Soubiran (who he?)

Edit: the site Tim found says it was "about 1906", rather than 1909.

Edited by Vitesse2, 17 May 2009 - 21:03.

[wdm]

WW1 pilots [...] Soubiran and Rhodes-Moorhouse (US and English respectively) were mentioned as having experience in motor racing before serving in the war.

Soubiran (who he?)

Are we sure Soubiran's first name is Raymond? A spot of Googling turns up a Robert Soubiran (link here) who appears to fit the description...

Edited by wdm, 17 May 2009 - 21:56.

[spooks]

I have researched the Rhodes-Moorhouse family a bit because I own a 1937 Derby Bentley with special sedanca coupe body by Gurney Nutting. It was built as a one-off to the order of the Rothschild family, but in 1938 Gurney Nutting built a second example for William Rhodes-Moorehouse, which is now in a small collection in California. The family's story is a fascinating one and, although much of it is way off-topic, it may bear repeating here.

The family wealth came from owning huge swathes of New Zealand, where a great-grandfather was an early settler and later a prominent politician. The WWI pilot, William Rhodes-Moorhouse senior, lived mainly in England and, confirming Neville Minchin's story, is recorded as having been summonsed as a Cambridge undergraduate for driving his 90hp Fiat racing car around the university at anti-social speeds. This is the car he also raced at Brookland in 1909. The same year he first flew an aeroplane, becoming a significant pioneer aviator. With James Radley he designed and built the Radley-Moorhouse aeroplane, shipped it to the USA and took part in several American air races, winning the San Francisco Harbour Prize in 1910.

When World War I broke out he immediately joined the Royal Flying Corps, and became the first airman to be awarded the Victoria Cross. In a daring single-handed raid over occupied Belgium in 1915, he few low over a well-defended railway crossing and successfully dropped his single bomb on it. During this sortie he was repeatedly shot, particularly from a German gun position on top of a church tower near the railway crossing. He was very badly wounded, but managed to fly his damaged aircraft home at low alititude. He landed it safely, but when his crew ran over to it they found him unconscious at the controls, having lost a lot of blood. He revived sufficiently to submit his report, but died five days later. The postumous VC was awarded a few months afterwards.

His son, also called William but known as Willie, was born only a few months before his father's death. He grew up surrounded by stories of his father's deeds, and unsurprisingly became passionate about aircraft. While a schoolboy at Eton he would cycle over to Hendon aerodrome for flying lessons, and earned his pilot's licence while still a 16-year-old fifth-former. He was also a proficient skier, and at 21 he represented Great Britain as a ski-jumper in the 1936 Winter Olympics.

His father's fortune was held in trust for him, and when he inherited it he immediately bought a very dramatic Mercedes-Benz 500K with English body by Windovers. This car was sold in a UK auction a year or so ago, and featured before the sale in a Classic & Sports Car feature by Mick Walsh. He replaced the 500K in April 1938, when he was 23, with the second of the Rothschild Bentley Gurney Nutting sedancas.

After World War II was declared in 1939, Willie flew Blenheims and then Hurricanes with the famous 601 squadron. In July 1940, having already shot down five enemy aircraft, he was awarded the DFC. One report I have found says the DFC was specifically for an incident in which he forced down an enemy aircraft, landed alongside it and disarmed its crew of two. I would be fascinated to hear more about this extraordinary feat....

During that hot August of 1940, as the Battle of Britain raged, he shot down seven more aircraft. But at 9.30am on September 6th 1940 his luck ran out, and his Hurricane was shot down over Tunbridge Wells. His body was recovered, and his ashes interred with those of his father at one of the family homes, Parnham Park in Dorset.

William's wife, Willie's mother, wrote a book in 1960 called Kaleidoscope 1886 - 1960, about the lives of her husband and son, also with many personal flying memories as she frequently flew with William in those early days. I have never been able to get hold of it, although I missed a copy on eBay by a couple of days. If anyone happens to stumble across a copy and feels like letting me know I would be extremely grateful.

For those not interested in flying exploits, apologies for the length of the above. But father and son were clearly both pretty remarkable people. Anybody know anything more?

I have stumbled upon this forum and have read with great interest as we have considerable knowledge of Rhodes Moorhouse as my husband's grandfather used to work for William, firstly as a mechanic/chauffeur at Parnham house and then as his batman when he went to war. As family we hold a copy of the forementioned book as my husband’s grandfather is mentioned in it as he regularly accompanied William and his wife on their adventures. Strictly speaking William and his son were buried on Parnham House land but as the estate has reduced in size over the years they both lie now outside the estate. Over 10 years ago we were lucky to visit New Zealand and trace sites there where his forefathers are recorded. There is a family friend who lives in Tasmania who has even more knowledge of William and his history. Spooks

[wingswheelsrails]

But did his Dad accidentally - or recklessly - kill a child pre-WW1 upon Brighton Beach? I can presently find no reference to confirm or deny.

DCN

Reading the New Zealand National archives, there are two articles posted on William Rhodes-Moorhouse and the boy who was tragically killed in the motorcycle accident. This occured on 22 March 1907 on "New Brighton Beach" in Christchurch New Zealand, while William Rhodes-Moorhouse (aged 19yrs) was testing a motorcycle that had been prepared by a local cycle engineer named Ernest James Ritchie. This Saturday event organised by the Christchurch Cycle Club had been encouraged by the New Brighton municipal authorities and the police had never made objections.

While travelling along the water’s edge towards the Waimakariri river at a speed between 60 and 70 miles an hour, an eight year old boy named Frederick Kenneth Gourlay ran across his path and was struck by the motorcycle despite valiant efforts by Moorhouse to bring the bike to a stop or avoid the lad. The boy suffered three broken ribs, a splintered knee and was described as "generally smashed about" when picked up by a spectator. Despite the injuries sustained he lingered on until 8pm that evening.

At the trial where Rhodes-Moorhouse was charged with manslaughter, the presiding judge V.E.Day (SM) said that he would have to commit the accused for trial as a Prima Facie case had been established, and it was his duty to send the accused to a higher tribunal. The accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail of 200 Pounds was again allowed and a Surety of 100 Pounds.

WWR

[Vitesse2]

William Rhodes-Moorhouse Junior was one of the pilots featured in the second (of three) episodes of "Dig 1940", shown tonight on BBC1 - shortly on iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...tle_of_Britain/

Edited by Vitesse2, 22 December 2010 - 20:36.

[Simon Taylor]

Anyone interested in the Rhodes-Moorhouse saga should watch this episode of Dig 1940 now on iPlayer, before it is deleted. The unseen family colour film is remarkable - extraordinarily sharp and clear. I can understand why the beautiful Amalia was approached by a talent scout trying to cast the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. (Unsurprisingly for someone of her breeding and wealth, she wasn't interested.) There is footage of Willie with the sloping back of his Windover-bodied Mercedes 500K in the background: although he is not in uniform, it implies that he kept the Mercedes up to the outbreak of war, even though he had already taken delivery on 2nd April 1938 of his next toy, the second of two Rothschild Sedanca Derby Bentleys (see my earlier post). Perhaps the Bentley was a runabout for Amalia, whom he'd married in 1936 when he was 22.

[Vitesse2]

New book on the Rhodes-Moorhouses recently published in New Zealand: Frontiers: A Colonial Dynasty by Simon Best

[Vitesse2]

Are we sure Soubiran's first name is Raymond? A spot of Googling turns up a Robert Soubiran (link here) who appears to fit the description...

Linky long broken, but this does appear to be Robert Soubiran. A three-part American Experience programme about the United States in the Great War - currently being shown on PBS America in the UK - mentions the group of about 100 US citizens, mostly French-domiciled, who volunteered to join the French Foreign Legion in August 1914. Poet Alan Seeger, boxers Eugene Bullard and Bob Scanlon and big-game hunter René Phélizot are possibly the best-known, but there was a throwaway mention of an unnamed 'auto racer' in the voiceover.

 

I did initially wonder whether this anonymous 'auto racer' might have been George Heath, who was of course a Paris resident but disappeared into obscurity after retiring from motor racing. However, Soubiran's name cropped up here, where he is described merely as an 'auto mechanic in civilian life'. After being wounded in the trenches, Soubiran eventually joined the Escadrille Lafayette, the US volunteer squadron in the French Air Force, and was later transferred to the US Army Air Corps after the Americans entered the war.

 

You can find a picture of him here: http://americanonthe...fort-takes-off/

 

He was also a keen photographer and his archive is in the Smithsonian: https://airandspace....-nasm-xxxx-0230 - with some of the pictures being featured in this PDF of a magazine article: https://www.airforce...00lafayette.pdf

 

His Find-a-Grave entry makes only a passing reference to his motor racing though: https://www.findagra...robert-soubiran

[P0wderf1nger]

Goodness me, how was I never aware of this fascinating thread?
 

For what it's worth, I'd like to add a little about Willie's last weeks which will re-introduce a motor racing tangent.
 

Whitney Straight should have been with 601 at the time, but was temporarily grounded because of ear injuries sustained in a bomb blast in Norway. He was working at the Air Ministry on Monday, 12 August, when the maps he was updating with the latest intelligence took on a radically different hue. He wrote in his diary, ‘600+ approaching Portsmouth – Looked as though the Blitz had really begun.’ 
 

601 lost four pilots in close combat over the Channel in a single day, and played a vital role in defending the naval base at Portland. Whitney, who had just been grounded for a further month, went down to Tangmere at the end of the week to see how his comrades were coping. He was particularly struck by the change in Willie. Something of a bon viveur before the war, but now it seemed he had found his destiny.
 

Willie had recently been awarded the DFC and destroyed two Bf109s during the week. Whitney was gripped by his vivid descriptions of a sky ‘black with aircraft’, but feared Willie would not live long. Three weeks later, and just six days after receiving his DFC at Buckingham Palace, he was dead, and the encounter and its aftermath left Whitney with decidedly mixed feelings about being grounded.

Edited by P0wderf1nger, 24 May 2022 - 20:56.