On 1st March 1911, the four officers, including myself, selected for the first flying course, assembled at Eastchurch in Isle of Sheppey. The others were Lieutenants Samson and Gregory, RN, and Lieutenant Gerrard of the Royal Marines. Samson had been in the Persian Gulf with the naval small boats trying to stop the slave trade, flourishing at that time along the Trucial and Arabian coasts. He turned out to be a first class pilot and in the 1914-18 War a very brave one. He was an individualist and difficult to work with but a popular leader with his juniors in any enterprise.