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Harry’s hopes and prospects were now as bright as they could possibly be. As soon as he had taken his “ticket” (i.e., R.Ae.C. Aviator’s Certificate), he was placed in charge of the hangars at Brooklands, where his real career began. Some of the gay times they had in those early flying days are worthy of record.

The firm, which later developed into the Sopwith Aviation Company, employing about 3,000 men, but consisted then of Mr. Sopwith, Mr. Sigrist, and about a dozen men, launched out with the purchase of a “racing” car when they had made a few pounds. This was an old Panhard of 16 h.p., fitted with a Victoria body and always accompanied by sundry disturbing noises. This genuine piece of antique was later fitted with a two-seater body, not to satisfy the wishes of its many drivers for a sporting effect, but because it provided at the back an enclosed space for carrying various impedimenta. On Saturdays and other festive nights it was customary for this useful part of the body to be discarded, and the turn-out would proceed, covered with mechanics, mud, and a very little glory, to the Kingston “Empire.”