E. E. Fresson

Captain Ernest Edmund "Ted" Fresson, OBE (20 September 1891 – 25 September 1963) was a British engineer and aviation pioneer.

Fresson statue at Inverness Airport

Life

Fresson was sent by his company to China in 1911, but returned to the UK to serve in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, undergoing flying training in Canada in 1918.[1] After the war he went back to China where he built, re-assembled and designed aircraft for local dignitaries. He returned to the United Kingdom after the 1927 revolution, and started giving joy rides to the public, flying for a company called Berkshire Aviation Tours,[2] touring England and Scotland, flying from any available fields. In January 1929 with another Berkshire pilot he founded North British Aviation Co Ltd, based at Hooton Park on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire. This company performed pleasure flights and air displays in the north-west of England, mainly using Avro 504K aircraft, and was incorporated into Alan Cobham's Flying Circus in 1933.[3]

He established an airline, Highland Airways, in Scotland in April 1933. He was awarded the first contract for domestic airmail in the UK on 29 May 1934, flying between Aberdeen and Orkney.[4][5][6][7]

During the Second World War, he advised the Air Ministry and Admiralty on where to build its airfields in Scotland: he is credited with building the first tarmac runway built in the UK, at RNAS Hatston, Orkney. His airline was absorbed into the war-time Scottish Airways, and into the nationalised British European Airways Corporation after the war: he continued to work in the airline's management until he was let go in March 1948. In retirement, he continued to fly charter passengers across northern Scotland.[4][5][6]

Honours
Fresson Monument, Kirkwall Airport

In the 1943 Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his work as Managing Director of Scottish Airways Limited.[8]

In 2011, a bronze statue of Fresson was unveiled at Sumburgh Airport.[9] A memorial to him stands in front of Kirkwall Airport.[10]

Selected works
  • Fresson, E. E. (1967). Air Road to the Isles: The Memoirs of Captain E. E. Fresson. David Rendel Ltd.

References
  1. Maslen, Geoff (August 2008). "The Highland Pioneer". Airliner World: 53–56.
  2. "Rimmer, Lancelot". griffiths genealogy pages. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  3. "Joy-Riding". A Fleeting Peace. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  4. "Seventy years on, islanders honour airmail pioneer". The Scotsman. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  5. "ERNEST EDMUND FRESSON OBE (1901-1905)". OldFramlinghamian.com. The Society of Old Framlinghamians. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  6. "Captain Ted Fresson". Undiscovered Scotland. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  7. "Tributes to legendary Highland flier". BBC News. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  8. "No. 36035". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 May 1943. pp. 2491–2492.
  9. "Bronze statue to be unveiled to mark Sumburgh Airport's 75th anniversary". The Shetland Times. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  10. "Captain "Ted" Fresson OBE". Kirkwall Walking Tours. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
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