FLIGHTPATH | 47his students. His front-line combat ended
over Douai on February 1918 when he re-
ceived a head wound, but it was as the Chief
Fighting Instructor at No. 2 Yorkshire
School of Aerial Fighting, in December 1918,
that Harry was awarded the Air Force Cross.
In his time at the training school, 2,700 pu-
pils were passed, most informed with Har-
ry’s firsthand knowledge of the enemy’s tac-
tics of the current period.
Captain Harry Butler remained in the
United Kingdom until the war ended in
- He then returned back to home soil on
5 July 1919, bringing with him the thrill of
flying. Harry also purchased two aircraft
and three engines from the Aircraft Dispos-
als Board at Waddon, Surrey. One was an
Avro 504K biplane, H1973, later registered
as G-AUCG, which was subsequently con-
verted to carry two passengers, rather than
one. For a fee of £5 for 15 minutes, appli-
cants could have a joyflight. The other air-
craft was the aerobatic Bristol M1.C, fighter
ABOVE: A close-up of the
nine cylinder 110hp
rotary engine, seen
without the type’s
original large spinner, as
Butler had flown it, but
missing the small spinner
he had used. [Phil Hosking]RIGHT: Inside the simple
and well-preserved
cockpit of the Bristol
Monoplane. [Phil Hosking]A view of the port underside of ‘The Red Devil’,
showing the aircraft has had the cylindrical
original profile restored. [Phil Hosking]