Edwin Moon

Squadron Leader Edwin Rowland Moon DSO* (8 June 1886 – 29 April 1920) was an English aviation pioneer who served in the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force during the First World War. He was a prisoner of war and he was twice awarded a DSO.

Family Moon was one of four children of Edwin George Wade Moon and Catherine Esther Butt, who lived in Cranbury Avenue in Southampton. He was educated at Cranleigh School in Surrey.

Moon married Isabel Madeline Waldron in 1911 and had a daughter named Mary in 1913.

The aviation dream The Moon family owned a boat-building business based at the Wool House. The Moonbeam Engineering Company Limited built motor launches and later expanded to include the sale of wrought iron propellers and marine engines for export around the world. Edwin Moon, possibly inspired by the 1903 Wright brothers flight, took a corner of the workshop to realise his dream of constructing and flying an aircraft of his own design.

Moonbeam II was a monoplane, weighing 260 lbs, of which 160 lbs was engine and propeller. A V-4 cylinder, 20 h.p. J.A.P engine was fitted, and it had a 6 ft wooden propeller.

Later in 1910, the plane was conveyed by horse-drawn cart to the meadows belonging to North Stoneham farm from where he made the first successful flight; the precise date of the first flight is not known, although researchers believe that it was between 12 April 1910 and 11 June 1910.

Military career Following the start of World War I, Moon soon enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service with the rank of flight sub-lieutenant. His military service took him to East Africa, based on , from where on 6 January 1917 he was on a reconnaissance flight with Cdr. Richard Bridgeman as observer.

Following his release from captivity, Moon received a bar to his DSO, for the display of "the greatest gallantry in attempting to save the life of his companion". Bridgeman's body was recovered from the sea and is buried in Dar es Salaam CWGC Cemetery.

As well as the DSO, Moon was awarded the Royal Humane Society's silver medal for his attempts to save Bridgeman's life and The Legion of Honour – Croix de Chevalier.

On 11 August 1919, Moon survived the crash of the Felixstowe Fury flying boat which killed one of the crew. The Fury was a large five-engined flying boat which had just left Felixstowe on a test flight to Plymouth; she was due the next day to attempt a long-distance 8,000-mile (12,875 km) flight from England to South Africa and return.

In December 1919, Moon represented Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War at the funeral of Sir John Alcock the transatlantic pioneer.

On 29 April 1920, Moon was at the controls of a flying boat on an instructional cruise when it crashed into the sea. with a wooden marker which is believed to be part of the propeller of the plane in which he died, which was erected by his comrades of 230 Squadron, Royal Air Force.