Bryant Thomas Shelley collection

Includes: 'English Task' notebook, 1926, compiled presumably during the early stages of RAF training or before leaving school, including large collection of dried four leaf clovers; three RAF log books covering the period January 1927 to March 1936; small wooden hinged box made by Fl. Lt. Shelley for his mother from an aircraft propeller (with brief biographical notes regarding his training at Cranwell, 1927-30, beneath).

Bryant Thomas Shelley matriculated at Downing College as an RAF Cadet in 1933, after serving in the RAF for several years, working as a test pilot. On October 7 1929, he was second pilot on a test flight of a Supermarine Southampton Flying Boat. (This was a biplane and, as part of the RAF's development process, it had been decided to fly the machine from Felixstowe to Stavanger and Bergen and then back to Granton Harbour). He was promoted to a Flying Officer in June 1930. He returned to the RAF after graduating from Downing and, by 1935, was a flight lieutenant assigned to the Experimental Section of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, involved in the development of radar. He volunteered to serve in Iraq in 1936 but died on 27 May, shortly after arriving, from complications arising from appendicitis and sand fever.

Open.

Donated by nephew, Dr T. Shelley, in February 2020.