My father, Joe Gilmore was an interesting man who lived in interesting times. Born in Belfast on June 22, 1900 to Patrick Gilmore and Elizabeth Crangle-Gilmore, his lifetime spanned World War One, The Troubles in Ireland, the Great Depression and World War Two. We know almost nothing of his childhood years but that he led a vigorous youth in Ardglass and had a considerable reputation in Gaelic football. He completed his formal education at Downpatrick Technical College. During his early manhood his mechanical ability and daring nature led him to automobiles, motorcycles and trucks. He operated a garage, ran a taxi and a cartage company in Ardglass and worked in Belfast building aircraft engines.

It was inevitable that he would be drawn to aviation where great developments were taking place led by inventors, designers, mechanical innovators, adventurers and daredevils. He was all of those things.

In 1929 he was employed by the Irish Army Air Corps at Baldonnel Airport, Dublin as Supervisor of Aviation Overhaul. In 1932, he received Irish Free State pilot's license No 23 and around that time he was the gliding champion of Ireland.

On April 17, 1933 at Baldonnel, he made the first parachute jump on to Irish soil and he did that using a newly designed parachute. This was followed by 14 exhibition jumps at air shows which were very popular in the 1930's, attracting thousands to see flamboyant daredevils risk their lives.

The Irish Times on April 14, 1934 reported
"Ardglass (Co Down) man, Mr. Joseph Gilmore, will, it is likely, take part in the England-Australia air race as mechanic to Colonel Fitzmaurice ..."

Colonel Fitzmaurice was one of the great aviators of the time and it is remarkable that he chose my father as flight engineer. Unfortunately, the aircraft was scratched from the race because of a dispute over weight. Today, streets in the town of Gander bear the names Fitzmaurice and Gilmore.

In becoming a member of the Institute of Aeronautical Scientists, he said "I built a high wing monoplane two seater aircraft using drawings and parts of crashed aircraft (manufacturers of which had ceased to exist). Fuselage, fairings, undercarriage and engine mount were of my own design. My hours of flying in this aircraft which I used for photographic work were approximately 350". He eventually crashed that plane but here we have the designer, the builder, the innovator and the daredevil.

The Human Resources Department of Imperial Airways, if there was such a thing in those days, was very perceptive in hiring him in 1933 as a Commercial Airline Engineer at the height of the Depression when the unemployment rate in Britain was about 15%. Before long he was promoted to Station Engineer at Ronaldsway Airport on the Isle of Man and later at Poole, England.

In 1936 Imperial Airways chose him as Engineer for an experimental flight to Arabia and return by way of Ethiopia, Egypt, Malta and France. While we have pictures taken on that journey, the purpose of the trip is obscure and is not mentioned in his curriculum vitae submitted to The Institute of Aeronautical Scientists. This was an extraordinary move by Imperial Airways after only 3 years service.

Imperial Airways confidence in him was further shown when, in 1938, he was transferred to the Atlantic Division, after attending the Imperial Airways School of Engineering and taking many specialized courses. That same year he was sent to Montreal, Quebec to open and operate the base at Boucherville for the start of transatlantic flights by Imperial Airways and to service the flying boats at Port Washington, New York.

In 1938/39 he went to Botwood, Newfoundland to organize that base which was the first Western stop after Foynes. He could not know then that Newfoundland was where he would be buried, not many years later.

Very few of his notes survive but they indicate that in May or June of 1940 he was in Greece while still employed by Imperial Airways. We do not have any information as to what he was doing there.

The war put an end to the Imperial Airways transatlantic flights. Imperial Airways became British Overseas Airways Corporation in 1940 and my father transferred to the R.A.F. Ferry Command as its first employee . In 1941 he returned to Newfoundland as Supervisor of Aircraft Maintenance at Gander.

Gander was the great airport carved out of the forests of Newfoundland and as the closest airport to Europe, Gander played a crucial role in the delivery of bombers to the UK. Thousands of planes passed through Gander and my father, with his men, mainly Newfoundlanders, had an extraordinary record of safety.

My father developed a great fondness for the people of Newfoundland and for the country itself. He could hardly do otherwise for he got to know the people and the country intimately, flying well over 300 hours, many times at great personal risk in adverse weather. Most of the flights were mercy flights to remote, inaccessible settlements carrying medical supplies and bringing sick or injured people to hospital in Gander.

One newspaper in 1945 referred to him as "one of the greatest mechanics in the world today" and cited his design and fitting of air intake shutters and his invention of the carburetor deicing system used on Hudson bombers flying the Atlantic and his design of the fuel dump system used on British Overseas Airways Corporation B-24 ferry aircraft. His deicing system saved lives and aircraft.

Flying was not an official part of his job in Gander but he flew, as a bush pilot, very chance he got mainly in a Noorduyn Norseman and a Fox Moth which he salvaged from the scrap yard. I think that my father enjoyed every minute of his life in Newfoundland. He made at least eight transatlantic flights and April 1945 he sought leave, as he put it, to "go home to attend to some personal business". For all his love of Newfoundland, Ireland to him was his home. But he was never to see Ireland again for on May 1, 1945 flying the Norseman he crashed on Prince Edward Island. He was only 45. His short life was lived to the fullest and we can only wonder what the future would have held.

When he died, he was mourned by his pregnant wife, Mary McCartan and five children. My father and mother were married in 1929. I was born in Glasgow, followed by my brother Sean in Dublin and my sisters, Margo and Josie in Downpatrick. My sister, Carrol was born in Gander and my sister Mary was born in Montreal, four months after my father's death.

My mother, my sister Mary and my sister Margo have passed on. But my brother Sean and my sisters Josie and Carrol are here today and they join me in thanking all of those responsible for this honor to my father.

We thank Frank Tibbo, aviation historian and columnist for the under Beacon for his writings which have kept my father's memory alive in Newfoundland.

We also thank Jim Watkins of Ballina, County Tipperary for his long standing interest in my father's story.

Our heartfelt thanks go to the Officers and members of The Ulster History Circle and the Lecale & Downe Historical Society whose interest and efforts have made this day possible.

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