Elsie Mackay

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Elsie Mackay aka Poppy Wyndham in the 1920 silent film Nothing But the Truth , starring Taylor Holmes
Glenapp Castle, home of Elsie Mackay's family, 1970

Elsie Mackay (* 1893 in Shimla , British India ; † ≈ March 13, 1928 in the Atlantic Ocean off Ireland ) was a British aviation pioneer , actress , interior designer and member of British high society . She died while attempting to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane.

biography

Family and work

Elsie Mackay was the daughter of Jean Paterson Shanks and James Mackay , from 1911 Baron Inchcape of Strachnaver and from 1929 1st Earl of Inchcape of Stranaver. She was born in India, but her family returned to the UK when she was an infant. Elsie had three sisters and a brother, who later became the 2nd Earl of Inchcape . The children grew up in extremely affluent circumstances and in a warm, loving atmosphere. The family lived in London and in Glenapp Castle, Scotland . Lord Inchcape, who had become an orphan at the age of twelve and had worked his way up from a humble background in Scotland, was President of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). During his time in India he was President of the Bengali Chamber of Commerce , member of the Legislative Assembly of the Viceroy of India and member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India . He was considered one of the most influential businessmen in the British Empire . Elsie has been characterized as as energetic and determined as her father. One newspaper wrote that it was "exemplifying the phenomen ot the 'New Woman' in post-war Britain" ("exemplifying the phenomenon of the ' New Woman ' in post-war Britain").

During the First World War , Lady Inchcape, Elsie's mother, opened a military hospital in London for officers. Elsie and her sisters volunteered as nurses there. She fell in love with one of the patients, the South African officer Dennis Wyndham with an adventurous résumé who was an actor in civil life. When Wyndham asked Elsie Mackay's father for her hand in November 1916, the latter refused and the daughter fell ill. On May 23, 1917, she married Wyndham against her father's will in St Aloysius Church in Glasgow after her father prevented her first attempt at marriage in London under dramatic conditions. As a result, she is said to have been (temporarily) disinherited.

From 1919 to 1921 Elsie Wyndham worked as an actress and appeared on stage and in silent films under the name Poppy Wyndham , in which she herself also did "hair-raising stunts". Her dress caught fire while filming her first film, The Great Coup . Her husband saved her life by smothering the flames and burned himself on his hands and arms in the process. The marriage with Wyndham failed after a few years, and in 1922 it was annulled at her father's instigation . The annulment was allegedly possible because Elsie Mackay gave false information when she got married in Scotland and the marriage was therefore legally invalid. Her biographer Jayne Baldwin assumes that Elsie, who came from the most comfortable of backgrounds, could ultimately not come to terms with a life by the side of a moderately successful actor after the thrill of an undesirable connection had subsided.

After the end of their marriage, Elsie Mackay took her maiden name again. To mark her return to the family's lap, her mother gave Lady Inchcape a pompous ball in July 1922, at which Elsie wore a dress made of pink and gold brocade over a petticoat made of silver lace. Among the guests were the ambassadors of France and Serbia, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and members of the British aristocracy .

Her father then commissioned Elsie to design the equipment for P & O's ships; for this she worked with the exclusive interior designers Waring & Gillow . She regularly started her work at 6 a.m. and expected her employees to start work as well. In 1923 the Maloja was her first project, in 1925 she equipped the ships Rawalpindi , Ranchi , Ranpiri , Cathay , Chitral and Rajputana and in 1927 the Viceroy of India . Their modern interior design ideas were praised in the newspapers. According to newspaper reports, however, a veteran skipper is said to have "almost hit the blow" given the establishment of a ship by Elsie.

The Times wrote of Elsie Mackay: “Dark, not unattractive, graceful, habitually well-owned and welcomed, Miss Mackay was the envy of every woman. Her silver Rolls-Royce flashed at breakneck speed. Her horses invariably galopped. "(" Dark-haired, not unattractive, graceful, always well dressed and wearing jewels, she aroused the envy of every woman. Her silver Rolls-Royce shot past at breakneck speed. Her horses always galloped. ") The The Manchester Guardian newspaper called her "one of the best-dressed women in London society".

The failed Atlantic crossing

Cockpit of an identical SM-1
Motor of an SM-1

On December 14, 1922, Elsie Mackay obtained her pilot's license after training at the prestigious De Havilland School of Flying . After Dulcibella Atkey, she was probably the second British woman to acquire a pilot's license since the First World War , in any case the first Scottish woman . Your flight instructor was the British aviation pioneer Alan Cobham . On one of her first flights as a passenger, the pilot, Capt. ECD Herne, at your request, an outside loop . During the maneuver, her seat belt broke , but she held onto the wing tension wires while her body hung from the seat. Then she had cuts on her hands that went down to the bone. In 1925 she was elected to the Advisory Board of the Air League . With its Avro - Double Decker she became a familiar sight in the skies of South Ayrshire and Wigtownshire .

A few months after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight in May 1927, Elsie Mackay decided to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane . It was not until September 1927 that the British Anne Löwenstein-Wertheim was lost during her attempt with her team of two. In October 1927 Elsie Mackay invited the pilot Captain Walter Hinchliffe 1927 to the Ritz in London to persuade him to cross the Atlantic with her on an airplane. Hinchliffe was a popular World War I aviator who lost his left eye in an attack during the war. Although Hinchliffe had expressed disapproval of women in the cockpit, she managed to convince him, presumably with the promise of generously rewarding him. She promised him a monthly salary of £ 80 (roughly four times the average salary) and that he could travel to the USA at her own expense to purchase the right aircraft. She also promised him that she would take out term life insurance for £ 10,000 in favor of his wife, and he would be allowed to keep prize money for the Atlantic flight. In one of her last letters to a friend she wrote that she was taking the risk for "Britain and British Aviation"; her goal is to return by plane and land in Hyde Park : "I know we will get there."

Hinchliffe chose a Stinson Detroit SM-1, which was named Endeavor (aspiration) . The machine was shipped on the Aquitania and delivered to Brooklands , a motorsport racetrack in Weybridge , Surrey , which also served as an airport. It was a black- hulled monoplane with golden tipped wings. It was powered by a nine-cylinder Wright engine , with which it reached a speed of 84 miles per hour. All those involved were obliged to remain silent. Her parents were not supposed to find out about the plan because she had promised them that she would not go ahead with her plan. After rumors that Hinchliffe was planning to cross the Atlantic, reporters followed him, forcing him and Elsie Mackay to play various games of hide and seek. In early March 1928, the Daily Express found out that the Atlantic crossing was taking shape; Elsie Mackay reportedly threatened legal action if the newspaper published anything about it.

Elsie Mackay wanted to secretly take off her flight while her parents were in Egypt. Because of this trip, Mackay did not want to postpone the flight later in the year, although she was warned that the weather in March was too bad for that. On March 8, 1928, Lord and Lady Inchcape set out on their journey to Egypt on the Ranchi equipped by Elsie , with them on board were Princess Mary , the daughter of King George V , and her husband Henry Lascelles . Elsie had designed the cabin of the princess she was friends with especially for her in green and gold. Also to hide her intentions, Elsie Mackay said goodbye to her parents on her departure from Victoria Station in London ; as members of the royal family were traveling, the newspapers reported on this social event. In an interview with the New York Times in connection with this farewell, she again affirmed that she was not pursuing her plan to fly to the Atlantic.

Less than a week later, on March 13, the Endeavor started at 8:30 a.m. with Elsie Mackay and Walter Hinchliffe on board from the RAF Cranwell ( Lincolnshire ) military airfield , without causing a stir, as Hinchliffe had only revealed to two friends that Elsie would fly with you. Due to bad weather, the project had to be postponed several times from one day to the next. The Ministry of Aviation had given its consent, but without being informed about the co-pilot and the exact travel destination. Elsie Mackay gave her name to Gordon Sinclair ; this was the name of one of Hinchliffe's two friends. Until the very end, the on-site staff believed that he was going to fly, and not Mackay. Around five hours after the Endeavor took off , the lighthouse keeper from Mizen Head observed the aircraft on the coast southwest of Cork , Ireland . The crew of a French ship later reported that they had sighted the aircraft on the correct course towards Newfoundland. Subsequently, any messages from Elsie Mackay and Walter Hinchliffe are missing.

Around 5,000 people waited in vain to arrive at Mitchel Field , Long Island ; the airport management, which had been informed of the flight by a friend of Hinchliffe, ordered that the landing lights be left on after 24 hours. On March 19, the search was stopped and the plane with Mackay and Hinchliffe was lost. In particular, the disappearance of the war hero Hinchliffe made headlines around the world. In August there were newspaper reports of a supposed message in a bottle that had been found on the coast of Wales with the message: “Farewell! Elsie Mackay and Hinchliffe, descended in fog and storm, ”which, however, turned out to be a fake. Eight months later, part of the Endeavor's chassis with an identifiable serial number was washed up on the north-west coast of Ireland.

From May 1927 to March 1928 a total of 17 people in seven aircraft are said to have died trying to cross the Atlantic.

Aftermath

Elsie Mackay left a fortune of £ 682,517, according to journalists' research, an inheritance that her father had paid her. The von Hinchliffe family - wife Emilie and two young daughters - had just over £ 22 after their father's disappearance.

In the months that followed, speculations about the circumstances of the flight, the disappearance of Mackay and Hinchliffe, and Emilie Hinchliffe's financial situation dominated the newspapers. There was even a rumor that Mackay and Hinchliffe hadn't even taken the flight, but had disappeared to start a new life together.

It turned out that Elsie Mackay had not properly taken out insurance for Hinchliffe (after her death a letter from the insurance company arrived with inquiries), so that she did not pay. In early July 1928, Lord Inchcape announced that he would leave £ 500,000 of his daughter's fortune to the British state. It was to be set for 50 years in order to reduce the country's debt (in 1976, a year before it was disbursed, the Elsie Mackay Fund was worth £ 5 million). Winston Churchill recognized this foundation as an "act of patriotism ". Hinchliffe's widow was not mentioned.

It was not until the end of July, after pressure from the British press was put on, that there was another announcement: Churchill announced the foundation of the Elsie Mackay Fund in front of the House of Commons , with the addition that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would receive a further sum from the private fortune of Lord Inchcape in the amount of £ 10,000 had been handed over, which the minister should use in "absolute discretion" to remove "complaints" from the world, in plain language: the money was intended for Emilie Hinchliffe. Inchcape refused to meet Hinchliffe's widow all his life, apparently because he blamed Elsie's death on her husband. Emilie Hinchliffe tried to get certainty about the fate of her husband with the help of parapsychology . When she published the book The Return of Captain WGR Hinchliffe in 1931 , she was forbidden from mentioning Elsie's name.

Ten years after Elsie Mackay's disappearance, her ex-husband, Dennis Wyndham, claimed she was still alive. She disguised herself as a mechanic, left the plane and now lives in Peru . An officer from P&O had heard of a strange British woman near Lima . He visited her to offer her his help. However, the woman did not leave her house and he only saw her through a window, but recognized Elsie Mackay. According to Wyndham, he had always known that his ex-wife was still alive. Elsie Mackays biographer Jayne Baldwin takes the view that this story tells less about real events than about the apparently moderate acting career of Wyndham, which wanted to make the headlines again.

Today there is a luxury hotel in Glenapp Castle. When the new owners installed lockable gates, they were - so it is rumored - asked by a local resident not to lock them: "The gates should never be closed until Elsie comes back."

memory

Glenapp Church stained glass window

Elsie Mackay is remembered by a stained glass window in the choir of Glenapp Church in Ballantrae , Ayrshire , where her family owned the castle. Her parents had this window and a bell tower installed and beautify the church. On the other side of the valley they had rhododendrons planted, which formed Elsie's name and are now so overgrown that the name is barely recognizable. In Canadian Gander a street was named after her.

literature

Filmography

Appearances as Poppy Wyndham :

  • A Great Coup (1919)
  • Snow in the Desert (1919)
  • Many a Slip (1919)
  • Nothing But the Truth (1920)
  • A Dead Certainty (1920)
  • The Town of Crooked Ways (1920)
  • The Tidal Wave (1920)
  • A Son of David (1920)

Web links

Commons : Elsie Mackay  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ There is information in (unreliable) sources that Mackay was born on August 21st.
  2. ↑ a b c Two Women. In: Time magazine . March 26, 1928. Retrieved October 28, 2018 .
  3. ↑ oT. In: thegazette.co.uk. July 1, 1911, p. 5169 , accessed November 21, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c The Peerage.com
  5. ^ A b Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 12.
  6. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 15.
  7. ↑ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , pp. 15 f.
  8. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 22.
  9. ↑ Poppy Wyndham at 'Find a Grave' (This source erroneously mentions Lion Atwill.)
  10. ↑ Elsie Mackay is not to be confused with the Australian actress of the same name (as happens in some sources), who was still active in her profession after 1935. This other Elise Mackay was married to the English actor Lionel Atwill . IMDB - Disambiguation page for Elsie Mackay .
  11. ^ A b Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 18.
  12. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 24.
  13. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 31.
  14. ^ A b Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 26.
  15. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 25.
  16. ↑ Ernst Probst: Queens of the air. Diplomica Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8428-7296-7 , p. 105 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  17. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 60.
  18. ^ The George Hotel Leadenham - Pub Accommodation Functions Whiskys Rooms Guest House. In: thegeorgeatleadenham.co.uk. Accessed November 20, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Kleine Volkszeitung , March 17, 1928, p. 6.
  20. ^ A taste of life in Britain in 1925. In: telegraph.co.uk. June 1, 2005, accessed November 21, 2018 .
  21. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 64.
  22. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 110.
  23. ↑ World War I Modeling Page - WGR Hinchliffe forum
  24. ↑ a b Kleine Volkszeitung , March 16, 1928, p. 7.
  25. ^ Princess Mary - Tour of Egypt. In: The Brisbane Courier. March 10, 1928, accessed November 21, 2018 .
  26. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 34.
  27. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 74.
  28. ^ A b World War I Modeling Page -Hinchliffe forum
  29. ↑ Old News of Newfoundland
  30. ↑ Old News of Newfoundland. In: ngb.chebucto.org. Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
  31. ^ Reichspost , August 3, 1928, p. 6.
  32. ↑ Harro Ranter: Accident Stinson SM-1 Detroiter NC4183, Mar 14, 1928. In: aviation-safety.net. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  33. ↑ Harro Ranter: Accident Stinson SM-1 Detroiter NC4183, Mar 14, 1928. In: aviation-safety.net. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  34. ↑ Linzer Volksblatt , March 25, 1928, p. 18.
  35. ^ A b Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 110.
  36. ^ The Hour , June 10, 1933, p. 7.
  37. ↑ Lord and Lady Inchcape (Gift to the Nation). (Hansard, July 3, 1928). In: api.parliament.uk. July 3, 1928, accessed November 21, 2018 .
  38. ^ National Archives - Elsie Mackay Fund
  39. ^ Parliamentary reference to the Elsie Mackay Fund in Hansard
  40. ↑ Emma Griffiths: Mystery benefactors who leave millions to the nation. In: bbc.com. August 16, 2013, accessed October 31, 2018 .
  41. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 115.
  42. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 112.
  43. ^ A b Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 126.
  44. ↑ Ballantrae Parish Church ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ballantraeparishchurch.org.uk
  45. ↑ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , pp. 118 f.
  46. ^ Baldwin, West Over the Waves , p. 120.
  47. ↑ On the Gander. In: gaflight.org. Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Mackay, Elsie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wyndham, Elsie (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress and aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Shimla
DATE OF DEATH around March 13, 1928
Place of death over the Atlantic