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| Oliver Godfrey, winner of the 1911 Isle of Man TT, with his Indian at Brooklands |
The Vintagent's
obituary of art critic Robert Hughes brought responses from far and wide, some from unexpected quarters. One raised my eyebrow though... a roundabout connection, via an arc of sky-borne bullets, between Hughes,
Lothar von Richthofen (the Red Baron's brother), and
1911 Isle of Man TT winner Oliver Godfrey.  |
| Lothar von Richthofen |
It took a memorial speech about Robert Hughes in the Australian Parliament to reveal a deeper story of the Hughes family, which included his father
Geoffrey Forrest Hughes, an Australian ace fighter pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1. The elder Hughes had gained fame by shooting down
Lothar von Richthofen, less famous than his brother
Manfred, but still plenty deadly, with 40 'kills' to his credit. Lothar flew in his elder brother Manfred's
Jasta 11 fighter group (the 'Flying Circus'), the unit which decimated 75% of the Royal Flying Corps' planes in 1916.
One of these RFC planes, a Martinsyde 'Elephant' bomber (yes, Martinsyde made motorcycles too), was crewed by none other than
Oliver Godfrey, who had joined the RFC in early 1916, before new 'hunter' squadrons were organized by Oswald Boelcke of the German Imperial Army Air Service. Only 5 years prior, Godfrey headed the
Indian 1-2-3 victory at the 1911 Isle of Man TT, and became a hero for racing, but not shooting down planes. Thus are the connections between motorcyclists revealed;
Robert Hughes, the brilliant Australian critic on his Norton Commando, and
Oliver Godfrey, the taciturn English TT winner on his Indian, via a pair of German aristocrat brothers with a talent for flying, in what was once the most likely opportunity for young men to visit far-off lands...War.
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Critic Robert Hughes and his Honda CB750 ca. 1972
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9:47 AM
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