St. Croix Johnstone was born 2 January 1887 in Chicago, USA, the only son of Chicago physician Stuart Johnstone and Jessie A Johnstone (née St. Croix). Before taking up aviation, he had been a motorcycle racer and race car driver.

He learned to fly at the New Forest Aviation School, Beaulieu and gained his RAeC Aviator's Certificate on 7 January 1911 on a Blériot monoplane at Hendon. Returning to the United States, he accomplished several firsts: on 29 June 1911, Johnstone became the first aviator to cross the Detroit River, crossing the northern boundary line of the United States and flying over Windsor, Ontario. Next, on 27 July, flying an American-built Moisant Blériot monoplane, broke all American records for duration and distance flying. He remained in the air for 4 hours 1 minute 53 3/4 seconds, circling the aviation school fling field 39 times for a distance of 176 miles 1,254 feet.

Unfortunately, just three weeks later on 15 August 1911, Johnstone was killed when his Moisant Blériot crashed into Lake Michigan while he was taking part in the 1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet.

Henry Rex Cook was born on 17 August 1863, in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India, the son of Henry Cook and Charlotte Chesney Cook (née McNeill). After attending the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery as Lieutenant on 14 February 1883. He was seconded for service with the Bombay Native Artillery on 24 November 1888 and seconded for service with the Kashmir Artillery on 1 February 1892.

On 1 February 1892 he was promoted to Captain and appointed adjutant of the Cork Artillery (Southern Division) Militia in Ireland, where he remained until 22 March 1897. In 1901 Cook was attached to the Jubaland Force as an interpreter with responsibility for mapping and as an intelligence officer. He took part in the Ogaden Punitive Expedition of 1901 and was promoted to Major on 11 September the same year.

Cook joined the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain on 14 December 1909. He took flying lessons in 1910 and gaining his Aviator's Certificate flying a Blériot monoplane at the New Forest Aviation School, Beaulieu, on 31 December 1910.

On 4 December 1911, Cook was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and, following the creation of the Royal Flying Corps in April 1912, was seconded from the Royal Artillery to the RFC's Central Flying School as an instructor in theory and construction on 20 May. After the Commandant, Captain Godfrey Paine RN, Cook was next most senior officer at the School and by August he was being described as the Assistant Commandant. In September 1912 he was awarded RAeC Special Certificate No 7 for carrying out a series flights and aerial manoeuvres which were of special merit in the early years of aviation. In December 1912, Cook spent some time in India, visiting Agra where he made observations on the ability of birds to soar and theorized on the effect of sunlight on air.

Basil Herbert Barrington-Kennett was born in Hove, Sussex, in 1884 to Lt. Col. Brackley Herbert and Ellinor Frances Barrington-Kennett (née Austen), and educated at Eton, leaving in 1905 to go to the Royal Military College Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant on 29 August 1906, promoted to Lieutenant on 10 August 1907.

Barrington-Kennett became a keen balloonist, and it is known he took part in the 1909 Hurlingham International Balloon Race, (although he was not placed in the results), and the 1910 Hedges Butler Challenge Cup for Balloons - Long Distance Competition.

Barrington-Kennett gained his RAeC Aviators Certificate on 7 January 1911, flying a Blériot Monoplane at Hendon. He gained his RAeC Aeronauts Certificate (No 14) the same day. In April 1911 he was seconded to the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers on 3 October, and during October and November 1911, Barrington-Kennett, along with Captain F H Sykes and Captain J B D Fulton, were sent to Rheims as observers at the French military aeroplane trials. They reported on the competition conducted by the French Army to select the most suitable, available aeroplane to meet France’s military requirements (It would not to be until August 1912 that a similar competition was conducted by the British Army). On 14 February 1912 he set a record for flying in a closed loop of 249 miles and 840 yards in a Nieuport monoplane, while carrying a passenger (Corporal G F Ridd, R.E), winning the Army Section of the Mortimer Singer Competition. On the creation of the Royal Flying Corps from the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, he transferred to the RFC as the Corps first Adjutant on 20 May 1912, under Captain F H Sykes.

At the outbreak of WWI Barrington-Kennett was in France as part of the RFC advanced unit. He was appointed Adjutant and Quartermaster-General of this unit. This was a Headquarters position and he did not fly during the war but was promoted to Staff Captain, and immediately to Brevet Major, on 22 August.

On 7 February 1915 Barrington-Kennett was confined to bed with influenza and then spent three days in hospital, following which on the 11th he returned to England to convalesce. On recovery he was told by doctors that office work was not good for him, so he applied to return to the Grenadiers, though he had been offered command of a squadron in the RFC. In that position it was his vow that the RFC should combine the smartness of the Guards with the efficiency of the Royal Engineers.

Barrington-Kennett returned to the Grenadier Guards on 1 April 1915, joining the 2nd Battalion fighting in France. On 1 May he is recorded as commanding No 3 Company. On the morning of the 17th during the Battle of Festubert the Battalion was sent to the front line close to the village of Festubert. On the 18th the 2nd Battalion was ordered to attack. The ground was very flat and the men had no real chance of reaching the German trenches some 600 yards away which were bristling with machine guns. Leading his men in this first rush Major Barrington-Kennett was killed instantly, together with several other officers under his command.

Major Basil Herbert Barrington-Kennett is buried in Le Touret Military Cemetery , Richebourg-L'Avoue, Pas de Calais, France.

Paul Georges Léon Jezzi was born on 16 October 1876 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium, the son of Italian born Annibal Joseph Jezzi and Anne Marguerite Jezzi. This appears to be the correct order of his forenames, but both contemporary and modern media have used them in a variety of orders, including the forename Leo ! The family moved to England and became naturalized citizens on 1 January 1889.

Jezzi was educated at Newport Free Grammar School, Saffron Walden, Essex, following which he became a cigarette paper merchant in the City of London. Having developed a passion for aeronautics and mechanics, in 1909 he started to construct his first aeroplane. He was ridiculed by his acquaintances, but was assisted by an old school friend, Arthur Cooper, in building it in a shed at his home in Shawfield Park, Bromley, Kent. The machine was completed in December 1909, and was taken to Eastchurch, where he had erected a shed, in January 1910. He commuted regularly between his home in Bromley and his hangar at Eastchurch on his 2.75 h.p Douglas motor cycle.

After several months of trial-and-error testing, the machine finally flew well on 10 August 1910. Jezzi's first flight in August, actually little more than a hop, covered about 250 yards at a height of 6ft above the ground. Remarkably for the time, the landing was trouble-free. In fact, in over 900 subsequent landings Jezzi was reported to have suffered just one broken wheel and a landing skid. In the following October the machine was converted into the tractor type when, to improve the cooling, the engine and its pair of main propellers were moved forward, with the pilot installed behind the engine. He gained RAeC Aviator's Certificate on 31 December 1910 flying this biplane at the Eastchurch flying ground.

The following year the biplane was dismantled and its 35 h.p. JAP engine used in Jezzi's new tractor biplane then being built. This was assembled at Eastchurch and in 1912 it was reported to have achieved a speed of 65 mph and he used it to give a number of passenger flights. However, aviation was always just a hobby for Jezzi, and by the end of 1912 he appears to have left it behind.

Paul Georges Léon Jezzi died on 26 August 1948 in Holloway, London.

Reginald Archibald Cammell was born 10 January 1886 in Inverness, the son of Archibald Allan Cammell and Katherine Marion Cammell (née Orr). Educated at Repton School (September 1899 to July 1904) and Royal Military College Sandhurst, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 26 July 1906 and promoted to Lieutenant in 1908.

In June 1910 a second-hand Bleriot XII was purchased by the Duke of Westminster and Colonel Laycock, a director of the E.N.V. Engine Company. This Bleriot type already had a questionable reputation and was powered by a 60hp E.N.V. engine. It was presented to the War Office, which officially had no aviators. Therefore Cammell was directed to go to France, examine this present, become familiar with the construction and learn to fly it. He went to Etampes on 28 June 1910, learned to fly on Bleriot XI then flew the XII. The engine was badly out of tune, flights were not considered successful and damage sustained on 1 July led to repairs, giving him time to visit the Rheims aviation meeting reporting on what he saw there.

Cammell gained his RAeC Aviator's Certificate on 7 January 1911 flying a Bristol Biplane at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, and gained both his Aeronauts (No. 21) and Airship Pilots (No. 6) Certificates on 11 April.

In 1911 Horatio Barber offered four of his Valkyrie monoplanes to the services, and one new two-seat model was accepted by the War Office in August but they had to provide the engine. Cammell supervised the installation of a 50 h.p. Gnôme and on 17 September he took it up on a trial flight, later intending to fly it to Farnborough. A number of sources blame him for over-confidence on a new type leading to sliding inwards during a steep turn, the crash killing him. It was also suggested that he may have forgotten to use the forward elevator.

Oscar Colin Morison was born on 22 November 1884 at Dulwich, London, the son of Alexander Joseph Morison and Leocadia Fernanda Morison (née Tennant), and educated at Madras College, St Andrews, Fife. He gained his RAeC Aviator's Certificate on 31 December 1910 at Brooklands Aerodrome flying a Blériot monoplane. Morison did not have to take the official tests. The Aero reported in its 25 January 1911 issue that: ‘Morison, having done two of his test flights in France last year, has now been presented with his brêvet in consideration of his magnificent flying lately, the ordinary test flight being an obvious absurdity for him to waste castor oil over.’

He flew exhibition flights in the early days of aviation in England. In 1911 he entered the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race but failed to start. On 7 March 1911 he became the first aviator to fly in to Shoreham Aerodrome in a Blériot monoplane. In May 1911 he was in a well-publicized air-race with Graham Gilmour from Shoreham Aerodrome to the eastern boundary of Brighton at Blackrock, Morison taking the straight course passed the winning post one minute before Gilmour.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Morison joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) on 23 December 1914 with the temporary rank of Lieutenant, and was posted to the Armoured Car Section. On 18 February 1916 he transferred to the Military Wing of the RFC as a 2nd. Lieutenant (on probation), but by 11 May had relinquished his commission on reappointment to the RNVR and the RNAS Armoured Car Section.

On its formation on 1 April 1918, Morison received a temporary commission in the RAF with the rank of Captain, but was put on the unemployed list on 8 March 1919. Morison’s activities between the wars appear to be unrecorded. He rejoined the RAF on 4 July 1939 as a Pilot Officer (on probation) and on 13 March 1940 was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer.

Oscar Colin Morison died on 17 May 1966 in Bournemouth, Hants.

James Valentine was born in Lambeth, London on 22 August 1887, the son of James Valentine and Frances Valentine (née Roe). He was educated at Dulwich College, and then apprenticed to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway locomotive works.

In July 1910 he went in to partnership with Robert F Macfie, providing a 50 h.p. rotary engine for fitting to the latter’s biplane. Valentine gained his RAeC Aviators Certificate on 31 December 1910 at Brooklands on the Macfie Biplane. When Macfie began to concentrate on his next design in early 1911, this marked the end of the partnership.

Valentine acquired a 50 h.p. Deperdussin monoplane which he entered in the Circuit of Europe Air Race, starting on 18 June 1911. He was the only British aviator to compete in race and one of the few competitors to complete the course. Next was the Daily Mail sponsored Circuit of Britain air race, over a 1,010 mile course, starting at Brooklands on 22 July. Valentine, again flying the Deperdussin, was one of only four airmen to complete the race. In the Aerial Derby of eighty-one miles around London on 3 June 1912, Valentine was third flying a Bristol Prier monoplane.

Valentine either purchased a Bristol Prier monoplane or, more likely, was retained by Bristol’s as a demonstration pilot. He flew it cross country to qualify for only the second Special Certificate granted by the Royal Aero Club. Prier and Valentine flew the two-seater Bristol-Prier No.58 extensively during September and October, 1911, and generated sufficient interest for Bristols to commit to build another six in prospect of domestic and overseas orders. On 22 December Valentine became the first man to fly a heavier-than-air machine over central Paris and the first to fly one around the Eiffel Tower.

Valentine joined the RFC with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, on probation, on 6 August 1914, and was graded as Flying Officer on 15 August 1914, antedated to 6 August. In October he was posted to Paris to organize a department for the supply of French aircraft, engines, spares and stores, and to report on the performance of new aircraft.

Promoted to Lieutenant (Temporary Captain), Special Reserve, on 1 October 1914, Valentine was appointed as Equipment Officer on 8 February1915, antedated to 16 January. Promoted to Captain on 1 September, he was appointed Flight Commander on 15 October and appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour), conferred by the President of the French Republic on 8 November in recognition of this work.

On 31 December, 1915, Trenchard wrote to Henderson about the Caproni Ca 1 bomber which was then under consideration for the RFC. There was a need to bring an example to Britain and the time estimated to dismantle it and ship was thought unacceptable. The solution was to send Valentine and some Austro-Daimler engine mechanics, able to deal with the aircraft’s Beardmore engines, to Turin and fly it here. On 12 February, 1916, Valentine took off from Milan with a mechanic on board, reaching Gremaude, near Antibes, 3 ½ hours later. After refuelling, Valentine set off for Marseilles but was forced down at St Raphael. There he was delayed by bad weather and flooding of the flying field. In order to avoid the flooding, Valentine tried a take-off from the beach, but merely broke two propellers. Replacements were fitted and by 29 April Valentine had flown the Caproni to Dijon, with instructions to carry on to St Omer. Despite further attempts, the decision was made eventually to remove the engines from the Caproni and abandon it.

In August 1916 Valentine was selected to head a training mission to Russia, and on 20 October 1916 was promoted to temporary Major while specially employed. The intention seems to have been to train Russian pilots to fly British-built aircraft but, like the other British forces out there, Valentine became involved with the 1917 Revolution and its initial aftermath as Kerensky sought to keep Russia in the war against Germany. On 25 May 1917 he was again promoted, from Flight Commander to Squadron Commander and Mentioned in Dispatches in July of the same year. On 4 June 1917, Valentine was appointed a to the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for distinguished service in the field. Valentine also received the award of the Order of St George (4th Class) for distinguished service at Tarnopol and Trebovlay in July, 1917, to add to his 1st Class Cross of Stanilaus.

That month the Kerensky offensive failed and the German and Austro-Hungarian armies began exerting pressure against a Russian army on the verge of disintegration. On 19 July nine divisions attacked the Russian 11th Army on the Tarnopol sector and the following day Locker Lampson, commanding the RNAS armoured car unit in Russia, found himself trying to stop the Austrians as well as to protect other British property and nationals. Lampson’s advance base was set up at the aviation camp beyond Podgaitse, reached on 22 July. Lampson now began a fighting retreat and Valentine was caught up in this.

It is believed that James Valentine died at Kieff in Russia (now Kiev, Ukraine) on 7 August 1917, though the circumstances of his death are unclear, most likely due to dysentery. He was reportedly buried in Kiev in Bratskoe (Brotherly) cemetery.

Henry Jacob Delaval Frankland-Russell-Astley (though normally just called Henry Astley) was born on 3 March 1888 in London, the son of Bertram Frankland-Russell-Astley and Lady Florence Russell-Astley (née Conyngham). Chequers Court, Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, today the British Prime Minister's residence, was at the time the Astley family country home.

Astley was commissioned into the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant on 27 January 1909, but resigned his commission on 7 July. This may have been associated with the state of his finances, as a Bankruptcy Notice was issued against him on 7 September.

Whatever the state of Astley's finances, by December 1909 he had built a monoplane at Brooklands; damaged in trials, Astley built a second machine from the remains of the first. Neither machine is likely to have flown. Astley gained his RAeC Aviators Certificate on 31 December 1910 (awarded on 24 January 1911), flying a Sommer biplane at Brooklands belonging to the Universal Aviation Co.

Throughout the 1911 and 1912 seasons, he carried out many exhibition flights and flew competitively, but unfortunately was killed in an accident while flying a Deperdussin monoplane at the Balmoral Show Grounds, Belfast on 21 September, 1912.

Robert Francis Macfie was born on 11 November 1881 in San Francisco, California, USA, the son of Robert Andrew Macfie, a plantation owner in Kilauea, Hawaii, and Pauline Monica Macfie (née Keating). By 1891 he was living with his paternal grandfather, Robert A Macfie, at Dreghorn Castle, Colinton, Midlothian. He won a place as a Naval Engineering student at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Devonport. He studied as a Naval engineer for nearly five years, but following graduation did not go into the navy; travelling instead around the United States, Canada, West Indies, Central America, Australia, and returning via South Africa on 13 March 1909. Presumably, some of this travel was connected in some way to the family’s sugar business. He had settled in Chicago by 1902 and between 1902 and 1904 he took a keen interest in the new field of aviation.

Macfie began construction of a monoplane at Fambridge on 2 August 1909 and trials began on 16 September. Flown for the first time in September 1909, the Macfie Monoplane suffered a series of crashes which required the undercarriage to be rebuilt. The undercarriage was replaced with a Bleriot style undercarriage instead.

Abandoning Fambridge, Macfie went to Foulness Island instead for test flights, but his tests at Foulness had to be abandoned when the War Office ordered him off the sands.

Macfie then found himself without anywhere for test flights and even took his plane to Paris to try there but was rebuffed. During the Paris floods between the 20th and 30th January 1910, the Macfie Monoplane was so badly damaged it was irreparable and Macfie returned to a workshop at Blackfriars in London.

Macfie's next machine, the Empress biplane, was assembled at Portholme, Huntingdonshire, from parts fabricated by W H Tothill, and first flew on 12 May 1910. The aircraft was moved to Brooklands, modified and loaned to James Radley to take to Wolverhampton, but apparently was not used. Reverting to its original configuration in July 1910, Macfie went in to partnership with James Valentine, who provided a 50 h.p. rotary engine for fitting to the biplane. Macfie flew it in the 1910 Neill Cup contest, but with poor results, but he gained his RAeC Aviator's Certificate on 31 December 1910 at Brooklands on the machine, as did Valentine.

A new engine, the Empress rotary, was fitted and flown by O C Morison on 22 January 1911, by which time Macfie's partnership with Valentine was over. He built his third and final machine for the 1911 Circuit of Britain contest, but it was damaged on 17 July at its first attempt at taxying.

Macfie now moved on from aviation. It has been reported that he had travelled widely before the war and had seen Holt tractors in action on plantations in the West Indies. He became an ardent proponent for tracked vehicles.

Following the outbreak of WWI, Macfie joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) on 19 October 1914 with the temporary rank of sub-Lieutenant, and was posted to the Armoured Car Section. Promoted to temporary Lieutenant on 9 November, he was posted to Wormwood Scrubs Naval Air Station in London, where his superior officer was Thomas Gerard Hetherington. Macfie had been investigating the use of Holt tractors for warfare. When Macfie suggested that they be used to cross trenches on the battlefield, Hetherington joked that it would be better to "take a thing like the gasometer at the Oval, put on a couple of wheels like the Earl's Court Wheel, put your mechanism inside and put in some decent guns like 12-inch naval guns, then you can cross the Rhine". He sent a memorandum to Murray Sueter in November 1914 outlining how six Holt tractors would be able to haul 85-ton twelve-inch naval guns over broken roads with ease. Sueter rejected the idea, telling Macfie that they weren’t in the business of hauling naval guns around. Nevertheless, the idea had been broached.

Heatherington submitted his own proposals, and as a direct result, Churchill established of the Landship Committee. Macfie attended its first meeting on 22 February 1915. Chaired by Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt, Churchill’s Director of Naval Construction, Hetherington, Macfie and the veteran engineer Col Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton, were present among others. Up until this time, those present had been adherents of Heatherington's "Big Wheel". But Macfie’s forceful advocacy of tracklayers, supported by his extensive experience with them, was to prove crucial. Crompton, who was to play an important role in subsequent developments, became an instant convert to tracks. This meeting was the only one Macfie attended, as he gained a reputation as a very difficult person to work with.

Be that as it may, by April, Macfie had asked for Sueter’s support in developing an armed tracklayer. Not only did Sueter agree, giving him a free hand, but he also gave him £700 and instructed Messrs Nesfield & Mackenzie, a small West London engineering firm which had been making anti-aircraft gun mountings for Sueter, to render Macfie all necessary assistance.

Macfie took an old Allday lorry as a basis for experiments and had Albert Nesfield convert it to tracks. Little is known of this vehicle, but Nesfield maintained that Macfie’s design used two pairs of tracks, the front pair being pivoted for steering. Nesfield, meanwhile, had designed a landship that ran on one pair of full-length tracks, each independently powered and one or other of which could be slowed or braked for steering. He also built an electrically powered model that used bicycle chains for tracks. An interesting feature was the "angularized tracks", as Sueter termed them, with the front of the track frame raised to facilitate better climbing.

It is at this point that the story turns rather sour. Since early June, Nesfield had been complaining about Macfie's "violent abusiveness" toward both himself and his workers, and the two were to fall out bitterly over Nesfield’s model. Sueter had ordered it to be shown at a meeting of the Landships Committee on 29 June, but it is not known if this happened (there is no record in the minutes of that period). On 1 July, Nesfield was showing the model to Hetherington, Crompton and some other officers at the armoured car division’s Wormwood Scrubs HQ when Macfie seized the model and claimed it as his. By this stage, Sueter was describing relations between Macfie and Nesfield as a series of "regular dog fights".

Sueter ordered Boothby, the commander of the armoured car division, to try to persuade Macfie and Nesfield to resolve their differences, but in vain. During all this, Macfie had produced a revised design in August 1915, but ultimately, and with great regret, Sueter ordered all work by Macfie and Nesfield to cease. Macfie’s reputation within the service was damaged by the spat over the model, never recovering, and in fact he resigned on 3 December 1915, alleging that his designs were being pirated. The Landships Committee ignored him, Albert Stern, in particular, dismissing him as "a very troublesome fellow and "a most impossible man to work with".

Stern had one more encounter with Macfie in December 1916, when the latter had approached him for help with building a pilot version of his machine, for which he had found commercial backers interested in mass producing it (this was after the first British tanks had seen action). Stern asked to see the drawings, assuring Macfie that they would receive a fair hearing, but Macfie refused, retorting, with what would appear by now to be characteristic ill grace, that Stern had not treated him fairly before. Stern, never one to suffer fools gladly, terminated the meeting immediately. Thus Macfie’s last chance was squandered by his recklessness. From this point, Macfie conducted a vicious campaign of vilification against Nesfield and other past colleagues, which ended in 1919.

In 1919 the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors recognised that Macfie had originated ideas that related to "tanks" but did not find any evidence that these ideas were communicated to those involved in developing tanks; he and Nesfield were each awarded £500.

In October 1923, Macfie and his young wife returned to the United States via Montreal. By 1941 he was living in New York, New York, and working for the American Cyanamid Company.

Robert Francis Macfie died in 1943 in New York, New York State, USA.

Cecil Howard Pixton (normally going by Howard Pixton) was born on 14 December 1885 in Didsbury, Manchester, the son of John Sutcliffe Pixton and Elizabeth Pixton (née Naylor). He served a three year apprenticeship with the Industrial Engineering Company at Newton, Hyde, and then in 1905 was employed in the drawing office of the Simplex Engineering Company at Trafford Park as a machine- tool draughtsman. From 1902 to 1908 he was a day and evening student at the School of Engineering in Manchester, and next found a position as a mechanic with the British Engineering Company of Leek.

Early in 1910, Pixton wrote to A V Roe, asking to be taught flying, and was initially taken on by Humphrey Verdon Roe as a mechanic, working for A.V. Roe at Brooklands for no pay in return for flying tuition. He accompanied Roe on his visit to America on 23 August 1910 to take part in the Boston Aero Meeting, 3 to 13 September. He gained his RAeC Aviators Certificate on 31 December 1910 flying a Roe Triplane IV at Brooklands, awarded on 24 January 1911. However, the date of 31 December is in doubt and is most likely 19 January 1911. Following this he gained paid employment with Roe as a flying instructor.

Unfortunately, as Roe could no longer afford to pay him, he left in June 1911 to join the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co as Flying Instructor, still at Brooklands, though he was transferred to Bristol's Larkhill School in August. He entered several flying competitions during the year and became the winner of the biggest prize money of any British aviator this year, except for Grahame-White and Sopwith, who won their money in America.

In 1912, he demonstrated Bristol Prier monoplane in Spain at Cuatro Vientos Airfield near Madrid before the King of Spain. From Spain he continued to Germany, where he demonstrated the Prier at the Doberitz Military Ground near Berlin in front of German authorities. Following a brief return to England in a failed attempt to test fly an early Bristol-Burney machine, he returned to Germany, to the new Deutsch Bristol Werke Company at Haberstadt to form a flying school and to instruct six German officers. He then participated in the 1912 British Military Aeroplane Competition of August that year, coming third. In October he again travelled abroad, this time to Romania, to demonstrate the Bristol Coanda monoplane at Cotroceni Aerodrome. He also demonstrated the machine in Italy later in the year and in Spain in January 1913. Following the sales tours, he took up the position of School manager.

In early 1914 Pixton left Bristol and joined the Sopwith Aviation Company Ltd. Under Harry Hawkers leadership, Sopwith had developed a seaplane to compete in the 1914 Schneider Trophy race. With Hawker away in Australia on a sales tour, it fell to Pixton to test fly the machine, by now named the ‘Tabloid’ in March. On 20 April in Monaco, Pixton became the first pilot to win the Schneider Trophy seaplane race for the Great Britain at an average speed of 86.83 miles per hour.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, Pixton joined the Air Inspection Department at Farnborough at the ends of September. On 1 April 1915 he joined the Royal Flying Corps., Military Wing, as a 2nd Lieutenant (on probation), graded as a Flying Officer, but remained with the civilian AID. He was confirmed in rank on 24 April 1915 and on 1 August the same year he was promoted to Lieutenant, further promoted to temporary Captain on 2 November.

On 23 August 1916 Paxton was appointed Flight-Commander, and on 1 September 1917 promoted to Captain. When the AID closed at Farnborough in 1917 and introduced Inspection Centres around the country, Pixton was sent to the Newcastle Acceptance Park in December 1917 for six months, followed by a further six months in Dublin. Then, in October 1918, he was transferred to AID Headquarters in London.

On its formation on 1 April 1918, Pixton received a temporary commission in the RAF with the rank of Captain, but was transferred to the unemployed list on 11 June 1919.

Following the end of the First World War and the lifting of restrictions on civil aviation, Avro formed the Avro Transport Company in early 1919 and entered the pleasure flight business. Pixton was appointed the chief pilot at their seaplane base at Cockshot Point, Lake Windemere, originally home of the Lakes Flying Company. However, rather than joyriding, the Avro seaplanes at Windermere were chiefly engaged with carrying the Daily News to Douglas, Isle of Man. Avro Transport Company failed to renew operations that ceased at the end of the season in October 1919, so Pixton formed the Lakes Motor and Seaplane Company in 1920to continue operations there, adding a garage specialising in light cars and motor cycles as well as catering for motor car and motor boat repairs.

Presumably this business did not prosper as the Lancashire Aero Club Report for week ending 4 February 1928 announced the appointment of Pixton to the the ground staff. Around 1929 he moved to Devon where he was the ground engineer at Haldon Aerodrome.

Paxton retired to the I.O.M in 1932 and became a leading figure on the Manx aviation scene. During the 1939-45 war he rejoined the AID at Farnborough.

Cecil Howard Pixton died on 7 February 1972 and is buried at Jurby Churchyard, Isle of Man.