Captain Charles Francis Wolley-Dod (25 August 1892 – 15 or 16 March 1937) was a British pilot and aviation executive. He was one of Imperial Airways' early pilots and later became their European manager. Imperial was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939, and Wolley-Dod developed several of their commercial routes between London, South Africa, the Middle East, and India.
He had a reputation for his sense of direction over Europe, rarely requiring the use of a map. In 1927, he co-piloted the aircraft that took Sir Geoffrey Salmond, Sir Samuel Hoare and Lady Maud Hoare in Imperial's first planned civilian flight from London to Delhi.
Wolley-Dod was killed "on flying duty... just before the Second World War" about west of Cologne. Under-Secretary of State for Air Sir Philip Sassoon reported to Parliament that the cause of the crash was unknown. Why an important Imperial Airways manager was flying over Germany in 1937 remains unclear.
Early life
Charles Francis Wolley-Dod was born to Francis and Annette Mary (Clarke) Wolley-Dod in 1892, in Lahore, British India (now Pakistan), one of four siblings, along with two brothers and one sister. His uncle Owen Cadogan Wolley-Dod was a career officer of the Lancashire Fusilliers. Another uncle, Anthony Hurt Wolley-Dod, was also a soldier and a noted botanist. His grandfather was of Edge Hall, and the ornithologist John Wolley was his great-uncle.
Wolley-Dod was educated at Rugby School, Warwickshire, and initially settled in Canada where he took up farming. He then joined the military and was first an infantryman with 3rd Battalion, the Sherwood Foresters, before he began pilot training at the age 24 with Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He eventually served as a flying instructor for the Spanish Royal Air Force. He served the RFC until 1919. His younger brother Douglas Wolley-Dod was killed in action in France in 1915. A third uncle, Frederic Hova Wolley-Dod, was also a soldier and naturalist; he died of illness overseas in 1919.
In 1923, Wolley-Dod became a pilot for Imperial Airways. Two years later he married Janet Evelyn Gripper with whom he had a son.
Later life
In 1926, he helped develop Imperial's commercial routes so that a route to Baghdad became available, and by 1931, a route to Delhi. He was one of two pilots who flew RFC senior commander Sir Geoffrey Salmond, Cabinet member Sir Samuel Hoare, and Lady Maud Hoare in Imperial's first planned civilian flight from London to Delhi in 1927 in a de Havilland Hercules. He became an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1927.
In 1929, he represented Imperial Airways on the development of flight-proving routes from South Africa, performed jointly with the Air Ministry. When the North African division was created, Wolley-Dod was appointed in charge of it. He later crashed Alan Cobham's modified de Havilland Giant Moth biplane. In 1933, Imperial Airways appointed Wolley-Dod their European manager.
Imperial Airways liner accident and death
Departure
On Monday, 15 March 1937, Wolley-Dod boarded a dual-pilot DH.86 (De Havilland Express) Imperial Airways liner, registration G-ACVZ "Jupiter" with 25-year-old wireless operator Gwyn Evans Langman, and 44-year-old pilot George Barker Holmes. A regular non-stop Railway Air Services flight service that carried passengers and mail to Cologne's Butzweilerhof Flughafen Köln airport ( ) would typically carry 10 passengers, that day, there were no passengers or mail, but the aircraft was required in Cologne for returning passengers. Also, due to waiting for a weather forecast, the aircraft left Croydon Airport (Imperial's operating base in south London, ) at around 9:30pm, instead of the usual scheduled 7:00pm. According to Under-Secretary of State for Air Sir Philip Sassoon, "The pilot was heard at 10.58pm to inform Brussels that he was flying in good visibility." (In 1937 the Brussels airfield used by Sabena and Imperial Airlines was Haren Airport, .) The plane was reported over Hasselt, Belgium, () at 11:18pm.