BILLING, N. Pemberton; b. Hampstead, 1880; s. of Charles Eardley Billing, Birmingham, iron founder, and Annie Emilia Claridge, Coventry; m. 1903, Lilian Maud (d. 1923), d. of Theodore Henry Schweitzer, Bristol. Fought in Boer War, 1899-1901; Royal Naval Air Service, 1914-1916; retired Squadron Commander; contested Mile End, 1916, in support of strong Air Policy; M.P. (Ind.) East Herts, 1916-21; play produced, High Treason, 1928. Publications: Endowment by Increment; contributor to Nineteenth Century, Fortnightly and other reviews on industrial and social problems. Founder and Editor of Aerocraft, 1908-10. Club: Royal Aero.
Who's Who 1937. London: A & C Black, 1937.
Noel Pemberton Billing (1881-1948 – according to the Oxford DNB; the entry above gives 1880 for his date of birth), a far-right politician, aviator and writer. His last two names were and are often hyphenated, so if you are looking him up in an index he might be under "Pemberton Billing, Noel", "Pemberton-Billing, Noel" or "Billing, Noel Pemberton"! The latter seems to be preferred, but even then it seems usual to refer to him as Pemberton Billing, not Billing.
That Pemberton Billing supported a 'strong Air Policy' is something of an understatement: the Independent "member for Air" was quite a thorn in the Government's side in 1916-7, when he harshly criticised it for failing to defend Britain against German air raids. His solution was a separate air force (which eventually did come into being) as well as reprisal raids against German cities. He became an expert in rousing the passions of crowds by tapping into their anger at Britain's apparent lack of defences against air raids, and was a relentless self-promoter. He published a book in 1916 with the title Air War: How to Wage It, an autobiography in 1917 called P.-B.: The Story of His Life, and even released a phonograph recording of his speeches.
There are a few things missing from Pemberton Billing's entry. He was the founder of the aircraft firm Supermarine in 1913, specialising in flying boats (he sold it during the war, so can't claim any direct credit for Supermarine's most famous aeroplane, the Spitfire). While in the RNAS, he was involved in the pre-emptive attacks on Zeppelin bases in late 1914. His play High Treason was also filmed (subtitled "The Peace Picture"), one of the first British talkies (in fact, it was designed to be shown both with and without sound). It is set some time after 1939, and features involving some futuristic Metropolis-style cityscapes of London, with strange aircraft flying about. Indeed, the plot (apparently – I haven't seen it) revolves in part around the threat of an air war, and the attempts by pacifists to avert it. It didn't do very well. Finally, he is supposed to have invented a pilotless flying bomb at the start of the Second World War, which the government took no interest in.
A less surprising omission is any reference to his being the defendant in the infamous "Cult of the Clitoris" libel suit brought in 1918 by the dancer Maud Allan, who Pemberton Billing had implied was a lesbian. This was tied to right-wing conspiracy theories involving a supposed list of 47000 highly placed British perverts (including the trial judge!), who the Germans were blackmailing into undermining the war effort. Pemberton Billing won, and the controversy didn't do his parliamentary career any harm, as he was re-elected in the coupon election later that year. He resigned his seat in 1921 due to ill health.
See also Barbara Stoney, Twentieth Century Maverick: The Life of Noel Pemberton Billing (East Grinstead: Manor House Books, 2004); Barry Powers, Strategy Without Slide-Rule: British Air Strategy 1914-1939 (London: Croom Helm, 1976); James Hayward, Myths and Legends of the First World War (Stroud: Sutton, 2002); M. J. Simpson, review of High Treason. Image source: N. Pemberton Billing, Air War: How to Wage It (London: Gale & Polden, 1916), front cover.
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Airminded · A sister to assist ‘er
[...] man answered the challenge: Noel Pemberton-Billing, founder of Supermarine and sometime demagogic independent MP. He rejected the contemporary dogma [...]
I would be suspicious of any of P.B.'s technical claims. The flying bomb thing is a crock, for example. Everyone and his dog had invented "aerial torpedoes" by 1939, and the RAF did experiments in the '20s. The man was one of the dumbest of all the air activists, and that's saying a lot.
Fair point, but I'd trust his technical claims more than some of his other ones, such as anything involving the Hidden Hand …
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEA-PLANES-AND-FLYING-BOATS-OF-THE-SOLENT-ADRIAN-.RANCE_W0QQitemZ370165739349QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090227?IMSfp=TL0902271110001r2113
Thought you might be interested in this. I used to work for the Maritime Museum in Southampton. I think there was a link between the British Power Boat Company and Supermarine works in Southampton immediately prior to WW2.
Adrian Rance wrote this book. I think the current curator is called Alastair Arnott.
By the way do you have any information on F. Handley-Page? He was my great-uncle. My grand-father helped fund his first company.
Thanks, Simone. I don't have anything on Handley Page that isn't already well-known (to those who know about such things!), but of course he was a hugely important figure in the first decades of the British aviation industry.
I'm with Erik. Pemberton Billing's 'Supermarine' type (the pre-war seaplane he had developed, the Pemberton Billing P.B.1) didn't, wouldn't, couldn't fly. Looked nice though, and that's probably a summary of the man – lots of noise and great appearance covering a barking dud. Not very Super.
I stand by what I said to Erik — better for him to be fooling around with aeroplanes than with politics! (But the P.B.1 must have been about the only design of his which looked nice; everything else he designed was ugly as sin.)
P-B is should be showing up in my masters thesis as one of the voices castigating the Royal Aircraft Factory for producing supposedly obsolete aircraft. I am probably biased and influenced by David Edgerton's work, but it does seem that the far-right aviation enthusiasts were mostly absolutely barking.
Maybe all the left-wing nutcases all headed to the Soviet Union, there to succumb to gigantism?
There were a few leftwingers, such as L. E. O. Charlton, but the tendency was definitely to the right overall. And while Charlton had his moments, he had nothing on P-B or Grey as far as loopiness was concerned.
Airminded · PB and C3I
[...] Noel Pemberton Billing has received a bit of criticism around here, and mostly for good reason. He couldn't design a decent aeroplane for toffee, he peddled lurid conspiracy theories, he was a relentless self-promoter. But I don't think he was a complete fool. He clearly had a fertile imagination (overly so, Maud Allen would have said) and sometimes he was on the money. Take his ideas for Britain's air defence, as expounded in his 1916 pamphlet Air War: How to Wage It. [...]
what a shit man
Airminded: fostering informed historical debate on the internet since 2005!
Airminded · Monday, 19 May 1941
[...] and Ministry of Home Security as being on a 'very small scale' (5). This may not bode well for Noel Pemberton Billing, 'a "Bomb Berlin" candidate in the last war [who] says he will contest the Hornsey by-election as [...]
My mother was Pemberton Billings niece and used to say that he was incredibly persuasive and virtually all his developments were funded by enthusiastic supporters – who never got a return on their investments.
Thanks for that, David — it squares with all I know of the man!
Any idea how much a copy of his book Air War and How To Wage It is worth these days? I have a copy which I'm thinking of selling.
Sorry, no idea. I can't even remember how much I paid for my copy.
I think the media these days would go into super crapp if they had the "cult of the clitoris" and 47000 British perverts to suss out. – Look what they did to Jimmy Savel, with no evidence. just death, for their editorial licence.
Were the boats better than the planes? He built high speed rescue craft during the war, while supermanine built Spitfires. He must have taken on Mitchell who designed the planes, and if he sold it during the war as the article states to Vickers. he must be responsible for our most famous plane in some way?
Certain sections of the press at the time did have a field day with the accusations (e.g. Horatio Bottomley's John Bull), but admittedly they were not quite the mainstream media of the day.
P-B sold the company in 1916 (to a colleague, not to Vickers; that was after the war); Mitchell joined it in 1917. So there's no connection there.