Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Alcock, John William
ALCOCK, Sir JOHN WILLIAM (1892–1919), airman, was born at Manchester 6 November 1892, the eldest child and eldest son of John Alcock, horsedealer, by his wife, Mary Whitelegg, both of that city. He was educated at the parish school, St. Anne's-on-Sea, and entered the Empress motor works in Manchester as an apprentice in 1909. Flying soon attracted him, and in 1910 he went to Brooklands, where, as mechanic to the French pilot Maurice Ducrocq, he learned the art of ‘tuning’ an aeroplane. Alcock took his aviator's certificate in November 1912, and was then employed by the Sunbeam motor-car company as a racing pilot.
In November 1914 Alcock joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a warrant-officer instructor, serving mostly at the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch, Kent. He received his commission as flight sub-lieutenant in December 1915, but was retained at Eastchurch until December 1916, when he was posted to No. 2 wing in the Eastern Mediterranean. From his base at Mudros he took part in many long-distance bombing raids. On 30 September 1917, flying a single-seater Sopwith ‘camel’, he earned the distinguished service cross for a gallant and skilful attack on three enemy seaplanes, two of which crashed into the sea. At 8.15 p.m. on the same day, Alcock left on a Handley Page aeroplane to bomb Constantinople. He was over the Gallipoli peninsula when the failure of one of his two engines compelled him to turn back. He covered sixty miles with one engine, but was then forced to alight in the sea, near Suvla Bay. Alcock and his crew of two were afloat on their craft for two hours, but their Verey lights failed to attract the attention of the British destroyers, and as the aeroplane now began to sink, they left it and struck out for the land. They got ashore after an hour in the water, and lay concealed throughout the night, but at noon were made prisoners by the Turks.
Alcock was released and returned to England after the armistice, and he left the Royal Air Force in March 1919 with the intention of making an attempt to fly the Atlantic. He approached Messrs. Vickers, who were attracted by the proposition, and it was decided that Alcock should make the attempt on a standard Vickers Vimy bomber of service type, fitted with extra petrol tanks. In the evening of 14 June 1919 Alcock, with Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown as his navigator, left St. John's, Newfoundland. They arrived at Clifden, Ireland, on the following morning. The actual journey over the sea, a distance of 1,960 miles, was made in the remarkable time of 15 hours 57 minutes, the total time of the flight being some 15 minutes longer (4.13 p.m. to 8.25 a.m.). Both airmen were received by the King at Windsor Castle on 21 June and created K.B.E. They were also awarded the prize of £10,000 offered by the proprietors of the London Daily Mail for the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Their aeroplane was presented to the nation by the firms of Vickers and Rolls Royce, and is exhibited in the Science Museum, South Kensington.
On 18 December 1919 Alcock set out to fly to Paris in order to exhibit a Vickers Viking amphibian aeroplane, designed to alight on land or water. He came down, in a slight mist, at Côte d'Evrard, about twenty-five miles from Rouen. The aeroplane crashed slightly on to its nose, but Alcock was thrown forward and sustained a fracture of the skull. He was taken to Rouen hospital but died the same day without regaining consciousness.
Alcock, who was unmarried, was a modest and generous man, and won the affection of all who came into contact with him. He had a passionate belief in flying, for which he always hoped to do something great. His ambition was gratified, but perhaps the less eventful part of his flying career was the most fruitful. During his two years' instructorship in England he taught and inspired a long series of naval air pilots. One of his pupils, Reginald Alexander John Warneford [q.v.], was the first naval pilot to be awarded the Victoria cross.
There is a portrait of Alcock by Ambrose McEvoy in the National Portrait Gallery.
[Official records; Badminton Magazine, September 1919; The Aeroplane, 31 December 1919; private information.]