Alec Ogilvie

Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Ogilvie CBE (8 June 1882 – 18 June 1962) was an early British aviation pioneer, a friend of the Wright Brothers and only the seventh British person to qualify as a pilot. During World War I Ogilvie served with the Royal Naval Air Service before transferring to the Royal Air Force on its creation in 1918. During the War he was chiefly employed in technical posts and after the War he worked as a consulting aeronautical engineer.

Early life Alexander Ogilivie was born in 1882 in the Marylebone district of London. He was educated at Rugby School and Cambridge University.

Early aviator In 1908 Ogilvie watched Wilbur Wright carry out a demonstration flight in France and within two months he had ordered a Wright Biplane for himself. In 1910 using a Wright racing biplane he entered the Gordon Bennett competition at Belmont Park in New York, he was placed third in the competition (for which he was awarded the Silver medal of the Royal Aero Club ) and brought the aircraft back to England. On 1 April 1918, along with all other RNAS personnel, Ogilvie transferred to the newly established Royal Air Force in the rank of major (temporary lieutenant-colonel). He subsequently moved to Australia for some years.

Personal life In September 1934 he married Angela Le Cren, née Newbold (1886–1958) in East Grinstead, Sussex. Her sister was the statistician and epidemiologist Ethel Newbold and her brother was rugby player and chemist Charles Joseph Newbold. Ogilvie died, aged 80, on 18 June 1962 at his home in Ringwood, Hampshire.