Harry Ward was born in London in 1903. The first year an aircraft took flight. His father was a piano maker. He had a broad cockney accent when he moved to Bradford in 1910, much to the amusement of his school mates. He would go on to become a pioneer of British military parachute jumping as Squadron Leader AFC with the RAF.

He was accepted into the Bradford School of Art, aged just 14. Harry then decided to enlist with the military. He was recruited into the RAF at RAF Uxbridge, and soon posted for training  at RAF Manston under the command of Wing-Commander Primrose.

In October 1923, now as a fully qualified aircraft rigger, he was posted to RAF Northolt. Harry was unofficially taught how to fly in a Bristol Fighter by Flt.Lt. Leslie “Hollie” Hollinghurst, who would later become an Air Chief Marshall.

In 1925, RAF Northolt became home to a new unit - a parachute section. Before this time British pilots flew without parachutes. To overcome pilots’ traditional mistrust of parachutes, a small team of RAF jumpers was formed to tour flying stations and give demonstrations. These men were drawn from the Parachute Development Unit at RAF Henlow and were nicknamed “The Loonies”.

Harry was asked to become a parachute packer. The RAF had decided to use Irvin parachutes. These parachutes had in fact been designed by an American, Floyd Smith, in 1919. Leslie Irvin, known as “Sky High Irvin” was a stunt jumper in California. He was the first man to jump using manually operated parachutes. Leslie formed his own company, bought the rights from Floyd and won the first contract for manually opened “A-Type” parachutes,  with the US military. He soon opened a factory in Britain.

Most British aircrews used a seat pack. Observers, gunners and passengers wore either a backpack or clip-on chest packs. For training and demonstrations, a special ‘Trainer main’ backpack with an emergency front pack was produced.

The Loonies jumped from wings of Vimy biplane bombers, by pulling a rip cord whilst holding onto the rear outer strut of the aircraft wing. This ensured that the parachute was open before descending.

Harry was asked to jump one day, to show that the parachute could be used by an untrained jumper. This he did once and was sent back to his old job of parachute packing.

The first pilot saved by parachute was P.O. Pentland who lost control of his Arvo 504. In the next 4 weeks, 4 more lives were saved, thus promoting the benefits of wearing a parachute.  These men were the first Brits to become members of The Caterpillar Club, an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. 

The Loonies lost a couple of their best jump demonstrators in accidents, so Harry was asked if he would like to join them. He spent the next couple of years jumping.

With the talk of pacifism and disarmament, it looked like the RAF would have little military use in the future. Cuts were made in government spending. So Harry decided to leave the RAF in 1929 and become a bus driver with the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC).

3 years later he joined a flying club formed by bus drivers of the LGOC. Their club was called “Busman’s Flying Club”. To help pay for his flying and eventually gain a flying license, Harry conducted exhibition jumps, which were a feature for the Herts & Essex Club. At this time he used a Russell Lobe parachute, made by an American competitor to Irvin. The Russel Company could not get into the parachute production market and eventually folded.

Harry then managed to get a job with Cobham’s Air Circus in 1932 and left the bus company.  He was sometimes jumping twice a day.

In 1933, Harry suffered a major accident when an aircraft flew too close to his opened canopy, nearly turning his Lobe parachute inside out. He woke up in the Weymouth Hospital. By 1943, he had fully recovered, but was no longer employed by Cobham. He found employment with another flying circus owned by Jimmy King and The British Hospitals Air Pageant. He was still jumping using the Russell Lobe ‘chute, often with the words “CO-OP TEA” written around the periphery.

In October 1935, he was on the P&O liner to India to take part in an air circus with the chance to earn extra cash training Indians to jump. This tour did not last long and soon Harry was back in Broxbourne working with the Jubilee Air Pageant. 1935 saw the deaths of many of Harry’s fellow stunt parachute jump performers in various accidents.

Towards the end of 1936, Harry was offered a job in the film industry at Pinewood. He was filmed jumping on Salisbury Plain and Boscombe Down.  

In the mid-1930s, Harry started wearing a Birdman suit, made by Cecil Rice. This meant that once in free fall, Harry could spread his wings into a flying position to entertain the crowds. He also started to use Irvin parachutes that had more positive opening characteristics than the Lobe. But by 1937, these British flying circuses were in demise, becoming less popular with the public. So Harry packed away his ‘chutes and became a mechanic with Imperial Airways. During this time he worked near a Lufthansa Junkers-82 and thought “what a nice plane to jump out of”. Little did he know that soon this model of aircraft would be painted in war paint and used by Hitler’s paratroops during the Blitzkrieg on Europe.

10 years after leaving the RAF, Harry re-enlisted. Working at RAF Cosford under a previous comrade, Flt/ Lt Davis, as a flying instructor. In early August 1940, he met up with his old friend Leslie Hollinghurst. Hollie said, “There’s something right up your street. They’re starting a parachute school at Manchester. A chap called Louis Strange is running it…”

Soon he was introduced to Major John Rock RE. Churchill had been impressed by German paratroopers and wanted a paratroop corps, consisting of 5000 men of his own. The Air Ministry was very reluctant to get involved, not wanting to divert its aircraft away from current operations. Begrudgingly, it sent 3 old Mk.V Whitley Bombers and a maximum of 8 instructors. These “instructors” were actually fabric workers and parachute packers from Henlow. The search started to collect men who had parachute jumped. This would include 3 men from the old flying circus clubs. Although these men had experience of using parachutes, the delivery of troops to battle was a completely new “kettle of fish”.

There was no suitable transport aircraft, no parachute system suitable for airborne delivery, no training system and no previous knowledge of airborne practice and theory. Just a band of Army PTIs, RAF parachute workers, 3 ex-circus pros and 3 clapped out Whitley bombers under the command of a former circus pilot. That was how the training of Britain’s airborne forces began.

Parachuting had begun before Harry joined the staff. The first few jumps onto Tatton Park were made on 13 July with Irvin trainer-mains. Men jumped from a platform at the rear of the Whitley fuselage by removing the rear gun turret. It was soon realized that this was not an effective way of delivering paratroops in a concentrated space and time and that a static line was required so that the jumper’s parachute opened automatically.

There was a lot of trial and error in trying to create a suitable method of men quickly and safely exiting from the aircraft. The first casualty was Driver Evans, who died on 25 July when his parachute got entangled with rigging lines. There was no reserve parachute and nor would there be for many years later.

Eventually a new parachute was produced. The manually opened pack with a bag system, whereby the lines and then the canopy were pulled out of a backpack under tension as the jumper fell away, leaving the bag attached to the static line and aircraft. This new parachute was called ‘The X-Type”.

Major Rock told the War Office that the Whitley was an unsuitable aircraft for parachuting. As during tests, dummy paratroopers had hung up on the aircraft tail wheel, and nearly brought down the whole aircraft. The War Office responded by stating that it was the only aircraft available and to “get on with it”!

Full training for the newly formed No.2 Commando recommenced on 14 August.

Bruce Williams invented the ‘fan’ to the synthetic training system. He also created a mock fuselage of a Whitley and harnesses for practicing aircraft drills and the exit through ‘the hole’.   Bruce also recommended using towers for dropping recruits. Towers had been used by the Soviets, where jumping was encouraged as sport in the 1930s. However, the War Office decided to use balloons instead. A cage suspended under a barrage ballon was cheaper than building towers at £30,000 each. Harry enjoyed jumping from these balloons. Although the falling sensation was very different to that of jumping from a moving aircraft. The balloon was initially very unpopular during the trials. Fortunately Louis Strange and Harry approved of it. When the first balloon arrived in Ringway in late 1941, Bruce Williams was the first to use it. He hated it!

In addition to members of No. 2 Commando, the ‘Specials’ arrived for jump training at Ringway. They came either singly or in small groups, in all shapes and sizes and accents.

In January 1941, a new batch of aircrew arrived at Ringway with their own Whitleys, commanded by Wing Commander Tait. No.2 Commando was renamed 11SAS. 50 of these men were known as X-Troop under the command of Major TAG Pritchard. On 7 February 8 Whitleys would fly X-Troop to target the Tragino Aqueduct in the hills of southern Italy.

PM Winston Churchill visited Ringway in April 1941 to see how the 5000 parachutists he had asked for were getting on. He saw a force of only 400. Only 40 could jump from 5 ancient Whitleys. He may have been disappointed by the scale of what he had seen, but the straight talking and enthusiasm from Louis Strange and the others impressed him. Churchill then obviously chased up the Chiefs of Staff, as a few weeks later there was to be a major increase in the strength of the airborne forces.

After less than a year in the job, Louis Strange was posted to the Merchant Shipping Fighter Unit at Speke, training pilots to fly Hurricanes that were catapulted from the decks of merchant vessels at sea. His place was taken by Jack Benham. The post of CO was passed to the school’s administrative officer Maurice Newham. He would command The Parachute Regiment Training School right through the War.  John Rock died in a glider accident. Colonel Jackson was soon replaced as CO of 11SAS, now to become The 1^st Parachute Battalion under Colonel Ernest Down, known as ‘Eric’ or ‘Dracula’ Down.  

To prevent bickering that had arisen from dual Army/RAF control, Newnham decided to draw all future Parachute Jump Instructors (PJIs) from the RAF Physical Fitness Branch (PTIs), nicknamed “Muscle Mechanics”. The first to arrive was Flt.Lt. John Callastius Kilkenny, ‘JCK’. Harry, who shared his office with him, described him as a fantastic footballer but ‘bloody awful parachutist’.   The ground training hangar was soon known as ‘Kilkenny’s Circus’ and the landing technique as ‘Kilkenny’s Roll’ . Later these PJIs would be personally selected by Newnham. The sad thing was that as soon as the original instructors taught the new men all they knew, most of them were quietly given the push. The Army PTIs were withdrawn altogether , and most of the RAF instructors returned to their original trade or volunteered to be air-gunners. They did not receive any extra pay or given permission to wear any form of airborne ‘wing’ insignia, even though some of these men had taken part on operational missions.   

Another idea of Newnham was to parachute recruits into Rostherne Mere. Jumping into water especially at night was incredibly hazardous. Fortunately the ‘X-Type’ parachute incorporated the ‘quick release box’, so the parachute could quickly be detached by the user.

Harry was also part of a trial to parachute men out of 8 seat Hotspur gliders. This trial was unsuccessful. Other trials included creating large parachutes (3x 20ft canopies sewn together) capable of dropping ‘Specials’ into enemy territory with radio equipment, producing a ‘slide’ for ‘Specials’ to exit out of Hudson aircraft, and a ‘trefoil’ triple parachute.

In 1942, Harry refused a posting to Iraq to set up a new parachute school. Instead he asked his old friend Leslie Hollington to be appointed as Air Liaison Officer to General ‘Boy’ Browning, based at Netheravon. Newnham recommended Harry for a Air Force Cross, which he received later that year from King George.

By the end of 1942, The Parachute Training School at RAF Ringway had now passed out of the hands of the circus pros into the hands of the “Muscle Mechanics.” Harry left the RAF in 1945 and never parachuted again.

He went to work abroad in Europe with the NAAFI.  When he finally retired he and his German wife Erica took up art again. Harry enrolled at the Harrogate Art School. His sons became proficient glider pilots and the youngest, Harry, went on to crew ocean going yachts. His other son Malcolm became a Sqn Ldr. in the RAF and parachutes for fun. 

Harry passed away in Knaresborough in 2000. 

Article based on the book "The Yorkshire Birdman" by Harry Ward with Peter Hearn, published in 1990.