Percival G. Spencer

Percival Green Spencer (11 November 1864, Islington, London – 11 April 1913, Highbury, London) was a British pioneering balloonist and parachutist.

Spencer was part of the third generation of a family of professional balloonists. He was the eldest son of Charles Green Spencer (1837–1890), who was the son of Edward Spencer (1799–1849). ascending with Green 27 times and soloing 40 times.

Percival first ascended in a balloon at the age of eight with his father over the Crystal Palace. His February 1898 crossing from England to France, accompanied by Pearson's Magazine journalist George Griffith, was reported in The New York Times.

On 19 March 1889, he made the first successful balloon flight in India. Ram Chandra Chatterjee took lessons from him and flew with him on 10 April, becoming the first Indian aeronaut to fly solo later that same month.

The following September 14, Spencer was the first to parachute safely in Ireland, at Drumcondra in Dublin. He jumped from two thousand feet in front of 25,000 people at 6.30pm.

Family life Spencer married Mary Anne Coleman in 1892. They had four daughters and a son. His wife died in 1905. Spencer died at his home in Aberdeen Park, Highbury on 11 April 1913, after contracting bronchial pneumonia.