Group Captain William Neville Cumming.
OBE, DFC, AFRAeS, FRMetS
(22 September1899 – 29 June 1955)
Born Newington, Edinburgh, Scotland 22 September 1899, W N Cumming was educated at George Watson’s School, Edinburgh and Glasgow University. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 27 July 1917 as a Probationary Flight Officer to be trained at the Flying School, Admiralty Aerodrome, Manston, Kent. Having transferred to the Royal Air Force on its formation, (when 9 RNAS Squadron had 200 added to its number) he was a member of 209 Squadron when he underwent an appendectomy at No.2 Stationary Hospital in France on 8 April 1918. Less than a fortnight later Cumming, in his RNAS rank of Flight Sub-lieutenant, accompanied Arthur Roy Brown on the patrol, 21 April 1918, when Von Richthofen, the Red Baron, was wounded in the chest and crash-landed near Vaux-sur-Somme, France. This RAF squadron came to be disbanded, 24 June 1919, and Cumming was placed on the unemployed list, 31 August 1919.
During 1919 the engagement was announced between Lieut. W. N. Cumming, R.A.F., eldest son of Robert Cumming, 20 Bute Gardens, Hillhead, Glasgow, and Phyllis Maude Martin. The couple married on 14 September 1920, at Christ Church, Westminster, but divorce proceedings ensued in 1922.
By 30 July 1923, Flying Officer Cumming was at Risalpur in India with 60 Squadron, to be injured when a DH9a No. E8729 suffered engine failure and crashed on take off. He was transferred to 27 (Bomber) Squadron on 4 February 1925 as a Flight Lieutenant. Based on M’ramshaw, this unit with a complement of 15 officers, 58 airmen was equipped with eight Airco DH.9a aircraft. Cumming was commended for ‘For gallantry whilst flying during the operations. This officer set a splendid example to his squadron, and performed 72 hours war flying, including 41 bomb raids’. (National Archives Air 30/62/1-9 ) Having been returned to Home Establishment, 20 August 1925, the London Gazette, 20 November 1925, recorded his award of a Distinguished Flying Cross ‘in recognition of gallant and distinguished service carried out by the Royal Air Force in Waziristan, March 9, 1925 to May 1, 1925’.
On 19 January 1926, Flt. Lt. Cumming was discharged to Class A Reserve, described as ‘an excellent pilot. Cat. 1’, and permitted to go to Toronto, Canada, in the following September . He flew in Ontario on the trans-prairie night mail up to 1930. Within this period he married, secondly, Margaret Jean Hockin.
During 1931 he joined Imperial Airways, and a son was born in Alexandria, Egypt, two years later. Having obtained his first-class navigator’s ticket in 1936 he was involved with the introduction of flying-boat services, carrying out the first tests of the Short Caledonia from Southampton to Alexandria on 4 March 1937.
Imperial Airways Short S.23 Empire G-ADHM
Image Source Graces Guide
Imperial Airways’ Short Empire C-class RMA Cavalier flying-boat G-ADUU, was shipped to Bermuda in parts from England to prepare the Bermuda to New York service on 25 May 1937. On 8 June 1937, the British Broadcasting Corporation aired the observations of Captain W. N. Cumming, carrying out the last experimental flight before the scheduled service began. During the broadcast, Cumming chronicled what he could see from 3,000 feet up in the air.
Leaving Imperial in 1938, ‘Neville’ Cumming, DFC, was appointed director of training at Straight Aviation Training Ltd. This company had been established at Weston super Mare Airport on 1 January 1939 with a view to providing commercial flying training.
By 1939 Cedars Cottage, 16 Church Street Epsom, was occupied by William Neville Cumming and Margaret Jean Cumming who went on to purchase the property in 1953.
Cedars Cottage, 16 Church Street, Epsom c1990
Image Source Bourne Hall Museum
On 7th March 1941 W. N. Cumming of Vancouver, B. C, travelled from Canada to Seattle, USA, to become director of the ‘flying ferry’ operations in the Pacific northwest operating out of Mc Chord Field, Tacoma, Washington, USA . He was in charge of arrangements to transport Boeing four engined bombers to England under lease-lend arrangements, flying as co-pilot in B 17 Flying Fortress AN 532 from Gander to Prestwick, 27/28 May 1941.
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress “Sally B”
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Evelyn Simak – geograph.org.uk/p/4649112
Wing Commander W N Cumming ( 09196) commanded 120 Squadron* from 1 July 1941, He appears subsequently to have become a Staff Officer in charge of anti-U-boat defences in the Indian Ocean. He was promoted temporary Group Captain on 1 July 1944.
On 3 July 1945, the London Gazette announced that he had been appointed a Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau, bestowed upon both members of the Netherlands military and members of foreign services who had helped liberate the Netherlands from Nazi occupation, and those who helped liberate the former Dutch colonies in the Pacific.
After WW2 he became associated with several air transport companies and served for a year as Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators of the British Empire. Group Captain Cumming was also a past chairman of the British Air Charter Association, a past-president of F.I.T.A.P., a member of the Council of the Air League of the British Empire and a member of the Helicopter Association of Great Britain (Flight International, Vol.68, 1955, p.37).
A maritime reconnaissance Shackleton of R.A.F. Coastal Command’s 120 Squadron*, stationed at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, consigned to the Atlantic the ashes of the late Group Captain W. N. Cumming, who died on 29 June 1955, aged 56, after a long association with the maritime side of the R.A.F. (The Times, 31 August 1955, p.4).
Margaret Jean, widow of Group Captain Wliiam Neville Cumming, OBE, DFC, , only daughter of Daniel Hockin of Vancouver married secondly, in 1970, Col. Sir Stephen Arthur Hallam Farnaby Lennard, 3rd and last Baronet.
Mr Cumming appears to have sold on Cedars Cottage in 1953 before he had died after illness at 7 St Mary’s Mansions, St Mary’s Terrace, London WC.
Brian Bouchard 2021.