Leslie Hamilton
Flying Officer Leslie Hamilton ( -1927) DFC, MBE, was a British First World War flying ace credited with six aerial victories. He disappeared while attempting the first non-stop east-west flight across the Atlantic Ocean. His Fokker F.VIIa, named St. Raphael, was last seen over the mid-Atlantic by oil tanker SS Josiah Macy.
1916 June 12th. Commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant.
He was promoted to lieutenant on 12 December 1917, and having transferred to the Royal Flying Corps to train as a pilot, was appointed a flying officer on 17 January 1918.
1921 Possible marriage in St. Geo. Han. Sq., London, to Barbara Augusta Webber
1927. Hamilton was then involved in an attempt to make the first flight across the Atlantic from east to west, flying from England to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Anne Savile, a widowed aircraft enthusiast, provided the finance. The aircraft, a Fokker F.VIIa (G-EBTQ) fitted with a 500 hp Bristol Jupiter engine, and named St. Raphael. The aircraft, flown by Hamilton and Frederick F. Minchin from Imperial Airways, with Anne Savile as passenger, took off from Upavon Aerodrome, Wiltshire, on 31 August 1927 at 7.15 a.m. They flew along the south coast of Wales, across to Ireland, making their departure over the Aran Islands. The last confirmed sighting was made by the oil tanker SS Josiah Macy at 9.44 p.m in the mid-Atlantic. Around 6 a.m the next morning the Dutch steamer SS Blijdendijik reported seeing a white light travelling eastward in the sky when about 420 miles east-south-east of New York, which, if it were St. Raphael, was far to the south of its intended route, suggesting that they were lost. The aircraft was never seen again.