{{Short description|Scottish airman}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=January 2017}} thumb|Bertram Dickson on Farman aircraft Captain '''Bertram Dickson''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRGS}} RHA (21 December 1873 – 28 September 1913) was a pioneer Scottish airman and the first British serviceman to qualify as a pilot. His exploits in the air, watched by Winston Churchill and Lord Kitchener, indirectly led to the creation of the Royal Flying Corps.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} Bertram Dickson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 21 December 1873. In 1892 Dickson accompanied the geographer Sir Thomas Holdich to the Andes Mountains to define the border between Chile and Argentina in the 1902 Arbitral award.<ref name="undiscovered">[http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/d/bertramdickson.html Undiscovered Scotland - Bertram Dickson]</ref> After officer training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Dickson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in November 1894.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=26572 |date=20 November 1894 |pages=6507–6508 }}</ref> He was promoted to lieutenant in November 1897<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=26912 |date=19 November 1897 |pages=6405–6406 }}</ref> and in November 1900 he was promoted to captain.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27260 |date=28 December 1900 |page=8756 }}</ref>
The following May, Dickson was seconded for service with the Foreign Office.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27318 |date=28 May 1901 |page=3637 }}</ref> By 1908, Dickson was in the Ottoman Armenian city of Van serving as the military attaché and vice-consul.<ref name="undiscovered"/>
At the beginning of 1910, he enrolled at the Farman flying school at Mourmelon, and gained Aero-Club de France license no. 81 on 12 April.<ref>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65639070/f200.image ''Au Jour le Jour'' ] l'Aérophile, 1 May 1910, p. 198</ref> Dickson took part in the Lanark flying meet in August 1910, where he won the £400 prize for the greatest aggregate distance flown.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Airmen and the Army |date=26 August 1910 |page=5 |issue=39361 |column=A }}</ref> In September 1910, Dickson flew one of the two Bristol Boxkites that took part in the British army manoeuvres on Salisbury plain: his aircraft was captured by the opposing team when he landed to report the result of his reconnaissance by telephone.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1910/1910%20-%200804.html Bristol Biplanes at the Manoeuvres.]''Flight'',1 October 1910, p. 802</ref>
thumb|150px|Artist's impression of the collision On 1 October 1910, while in Milan, Dickson was involved in the first mid-air collision between two aeroplanes. An Antoinette monoplane, piloted by René Thomas of France, rammed Dickson's Farman biplane. Both pilots were injured in the crash.<ref>"Aeroplanes in Collision", ''The New York Times'', 2 October 1910, p. 11; [https://www.icao.int/SAM/Documents/GREPECAS/2008/ATMCOMM06/ATMCO6WP15.pdf International Civil Aviation Organization]</ref> Although Dickson survived, he never fully recovered from his injuries, which contributed to his early death on 28 September 1913.<ref>[http://earlyaviators.com/edickson.htm The Early Birds of Aviation - Bertram Dickson] </ref> His body was buried in the Highland village of Achanalt in Ross and Cromarty.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://earlyaviators.com/edickson.htm The Early Birds of Aviation - Bertram Dickson] *[http://www.bertram-dickson.com/captain-bertram-dickson/biography/ bertram-dickson.com - biography] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20121111074352/http://news.webshots.com/album/556889059wBJakF Webshots - Collection of photographs relating to Bertram Dickson](Wayback retrieval; 2012) *[http://aviation.maisons-champagne.com/dir.php?centre=04-bio-dickson&menu=11 Champagne| Berceau de l'aviation du Monde]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Bertram}} Category:1873 births Category:1913 deaths Category:British aviation pioneers Category:Royal Horse Artillery officers Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Category:Scottish airmen Category:Scottish aviators Category:Military personnel from Edinburgh Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1913