REMEMBERING HERO OF SKIES
Family and fans gather 100 years after death of daredevil pilot
HE WAS a hero to a generation of Leeds folk 100 years ago but today, few have heard of daredevil test pilot Rowland Ding.
At a time when planes were a rare sight, the talented airman became a celebrity in Leeds where he tested planes from Blackburn’s aircraft factory on Roundhay Road.
Children would gather at Soldiers’ Field every day to wave him off, shouting ‘Take me up with you, Mr Ding!’ and residents would look out for his plane in the sky, emblazoned with Ding under the wings.
Despite only flying for three years, he had been at the controls of more aircraft than any other Briton when he died at the age of 31 after a test flight went wrong.
That final flight was 100 years ago today, on May 12 1917.
Around 1,000 spectators watched as Ding’s biplane crashed into woodland at Oakwood and burst into flames.
Tonight at 6pm – the time of the crash – members of Mr Ding’s family will gather at the site with dignitaries and residents to mark the anniversary and unveil a plaque.
The organiser of the ceremony is Matthew Ridley, the grandson of Eric Sudell, who was one of Mr Ding’s many fans and witnessed his hero’s death as an eight-yearold boy.
Mr Sudell died in 2008 aged 99 but would still regularly speak of Mr Ding to his family.
Matthew, 43, of Roundhay, said: “When I was growing up he took me to the crash site and talked about it. He said he had seen the plane break apart and watched it plummet. He went to the crash site the next day and they all got souvenirs from the crashed plane. He kept them for many years.
“In Leeds, in my grandfather’s generation, everyone knew about Rowland Ding. He was quite remarkable. But as time has gone on, it’s all faded. It’s a reason to mark the anniversary, to sort of continue his memory.”
It was through Matthew’s research that contact was made with Mr Ding’s family, including grandson Julian Ding, 61, and great-grandson Charlie HayhurstDing, 18, who now live near Kidderminster but will both be at tonight’s ceremony.
Julian said: “It’s nice that his memory is being kept alive. Every time I come up to Leeds I learn something more about it.” He added: “He was clearly a natural pilot, especially when you consider the sort of equipment he had to use. There was no computer modelling. It was real fly by the seat of your pants and very much trial and error. “At Blackburn’s, they were banging out planes as fast as they could [for the war effort], in what was a very embryonic industry, with no experts. Yet he test flew what came off the production line.
“He clearly needed the rush and liked to play to the crowd. The last words that anyone said to him was from the director of productions, or someone like that, who said, ‘No fancy flying’. Famous last words.”
His body was removed and taken into the grounds of what is now Oakwood Hall but was then a house called The Acacias.
He is buried in the churchyard at Papworth Saint Everard in Cambridgeshire.
It was real fly by the seat of your pants and very much trial and error. Julian Ding, grandson of Rowland.