Page 181 - They Also Served

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John Hindmarsh 1928.
John Stuart Hindmarsh was born in 1907 and educated
at Sherborne School, Dorset. Entering Sandhurst in 1926,
he was commissioned into the Royal Tank Corps two years
later and posted to the 2nd Battalion in Lincolnshire.
There, his proximity to the many aerodromes fostered
a desire to fly and, in 1930, he applied for a secondment to the RAF, learning to fly at No.2 Flying Training School, RAF Digby. After an initial posting to No.16 Army Co-operation Squadron at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, he was then sent to No.4 Army Co-operation Squadron, at Farnborough, during which time he resigned his commission in the army and was gazetted as an RAF officer. A journalist for Flight magazine who flew with him wrote: ‘His uncanny judgement of speed and distance made him an ideal photographic pilot. He had one very English trait of character, that of keeping up a running fire of humorous disproval of the business in hand, though at the same time he was really flat out with enthusiasm and helpfulness. One had always to be careful how much one demanded of Johnny, for he never refused’.
Hindmarsh had managed to divide his time as an RAF officer between flying and driving racing cars for Talbot and Lagonda. A driver who was immensely popular in the racing fraternity, he achieved considerable success in long-distance events and was noted for his willingness to work with the team mechanics, often through the night. In 1935, partnering Frenchman Luis Fontés and driving a 4.5 litre Lagonda, he scaled the pinnacle of distance racing, winning the Le Mans 24 Hour Race. Hindmarsh married Violette Cordery, another noted endurance driver, in 1931. Their daughter, Susan, would marry British racing driver Roy Salvadori who, himself, won Le Mans in 1959.
In February 1935, Hindmarsh secured an attachment to the Hawker Aircraft Group as a test pilot and was immediately involved in the flight testing of a new and revolutionary monoplane fighter, the Hawker Hurricane. With mounting tension in Europe, manufacturers were under pressure to ready this aircraft and the other new fighter, the Supermarine Spitfire, for front-line service as soon as possible. The first production Hurricanes were cleared for service in October 1937, although testing continued as further modifications were made. On 12th October 1938, Squadron Leader Johnny Hindmarsh was testing a Hurricane when he was overcome by toxic fumes and killed when the aircraft plunged into the ground at St George’s Hill golf course near Weybridge.
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