Noel Pemberton Billing
Encyclopedia
Noel Pemberton Billing (1881 – 11 November 1948) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

, inventor, publisher, and Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

. He founded the firm that became Supermarine
Supermarine
Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that became famous for producing a range of sea planes and the Supermarine Spitfire fighter. The name now belongs to an English motorboat manufacturer.-History:...

 and promoted air power, but he held a strong antipathy towards the Royal Aircraft Factory
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...

 and its products. He was notorious during the First World War for his his extreme right-wing views and his homophobic
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

 conspiracy theories, which eventually led to a sensational libel trial.

Early life and aviation

Born in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

, a residential suburb in north London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

, Billing ran away from home at the age of 14 and travelled to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. After trying a number of occupations, he joined the mounted police
Mounted police
Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...

 and became a boxer. He fought in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

, but was invalided out.

Billing then returned to England and used his savings to open a garage in Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...

. This was successful, but he became more interested in aviation, which was then in its infancy. An attempt to open an aerodrome
Aerodrome
An aerodrome, airdrome or airfield is a term for any location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve cargo, passengers or neither...

 in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 failed, so he started a short-lived career in property, while studying to become a lawyer. He passed his exams, but instead moved into selling steam yacht
Steam yacht
A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.-Origin of the name:...

s. He bet Frederick Handley Page
Frederick Handley Page
Sir Frederick Handley Page, CBE, FRAeS was an English industrialist who was a pioneer in the design and manufacture of aircraft. His company Handley Page Limited produced a series of military aircraft, including the Halifax bomber in World War II, of which around 7,000 were produced...

 that he could earn his pilot's licence within 24 hours of first sitting in a plane. He won his bet, gaining licence number 683 and £500, equivalent to more than £28 000 in 2010, which he used to found an aircraft business, Pemberton-Billing Ltd, with Hubert Scott-Paine
Hubert Scott-Paine
Hubert Scott-Paine was a British aircraft and boat designer, record-breaking power boat racer, entrepreneur, inventor, and sponsor of the winning entry in the 1922 Schneider Trophy.-Early life:...

 as works manager, in 1913. Billing registered the telegraphic address Supermarine, Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

for the company, which soon acquired premises at Oakbank Wharf in Woolston, Southampton and started construction of his flying boat
Flying boat
A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...

 designs. Financial difficulties soon set in, but the onset of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 revived the fortunes of the business.

In 1914, Billing was called up
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, where he organised an aircraft raid
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...

 on Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...

 sheds near Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...

. He was able to sell his share in the aviation firm to Scott-Paine in early 1916, who renamed the firm Supermarine Aviation Works Limited
Supermarine
Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that became famous for producing a range of sea planes and the Supermarine Spitfire fighter. The name now belongs to an English motorboat manufacturer.-History:...

 after the company's telegraphic address. Leo McKinstry credits Billing as the founder of Supermarine in Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend.

Politics and his advocacy of air power

As a man of means, Billing contested the Mile End
Mile End (UK Parliament constituency)
Mile End was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Mile End district of the East End of London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 by-election as an independent candidate
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 in 1916, but was not successful. He then contested and won another by-election in Hertford
Hertford (UK Parliament constituency)
Hertford was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Hertfordshire, which elected Members of Parliament from 1298 until 1974. It was represented in the House of Commons of England from 1298 to 1707, then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally in the House of...

. He held the seat at the 1918 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1918
The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

 and retained his East Hertfordshire seat until 1923.

During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 he was notable for his support of air power, constantly accusing the government of neglecting the issue and advocating the creation of a separate air force
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...

, unattached to either the army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 or navy. During the so-called "Fokker scourge
Fokker Scourge
The Fokker Scourge was a term coined by the British press in the summer of 1915 to describe the then-current ascendancy of the Fokker Eindecker monoplane fighters of the German Fliegertruppen over the poorly-armed Allied reconnaissance types of the period....

" of late 1915 and early 1916, he became particularly vocal against the Royal Aircraft Factory and its products, raising the question in typically exaggerated terms once he entered Parliament. His prejudice against the Factory and its products persisted, and was very influential. He called for air raids
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...

 against German cities. In 1917 he published Air War and How to Wage it, which emphasised the future role of raids on cities and the need to develop protective measures. His own eccentric quadraplane design for a home defence fighter, known as the "Nighthawk
Supermarine Nighthawk
-References:NotesBibliography* Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Supermarine Aircraft since 1914. London: Putnam, 1987. ISBN 0-85177-800-3.* Bruce, J.M. Warplanes of the First World War, Volume Three: Fighters. London: Macdonald, 1969. ISBN 356-01490-8....

", was built in prototype but had far too feeble a performance to be of any use as an interceptor.

Publishing and his campaign against homosexuality

Billing took the view that homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 was infiltrating and tainting English society, and that this was linked to German espionage in the context of World War I. He founded a journal, Imperialist, in which he wrote an article based on information provided by Harold Sherwood Spencer
Harold Sherwood Spencer
Harold Sherwood Spencer, a native of the U.S. state of Wisconsin , was a British anti-homosexual and antisemitic activist during World War I.-Early life:...

 which claimed that the Germans were blackmailing "47,000 highly placed British perverts" to "propagate evils which all decent men thought had perished in Sodom
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

 and Lesbia." The names were said to be inscribed in the "Berlin Black Book" of the "Mbret of Albania". The contents of this book revealed that the Germans planned on "exterminating the manhood of Britain" by luring men into homosexual acts. "Even to loiter in the streets was not immune. Meretricious agents of the Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...

 were stationed at such places as Marble Arch
Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, and Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London, England...

 and Hyde Park Corner
Hyde Park Corner
Hyde Park Corner is a place in London, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park. It is a major intersection where Park Lane, Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Grosvenor Place and Constitution Hill converge...

. In this black book
Black book
- History :* The Black Book, the list of people to be arrested by the Gestapo following a planned Nazi invasion of Britain in the Second World War* Black Book , a compilation of documentary reports about the actions of Nazis against Jews in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust- Literature :* The...

 of sin details were given of the unnatural defloration of children...wives of men in supreme positions were entangled. In Lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 ecstasy the most sacred secrets of the state were threatened". He publicly attacked Margot Asquith
Margot Asquith
Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith , born Emma Alice Margaret Tennant, was an Anglo-Scottish socialite, author and wit...

, wife of the prime minister, hinting that she was caught up in this. He also targeted members of the circle around Robbie Ross, the literary executor of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

, who supported and introduced homosexual poets and writers.

Billing's journal was then renamed Vigilante, and published a second article, "The Cult of the Clitoris". This implied that the actress Maud Allan
Maud Allan
Maud Allan was a pianist-turned-actor, dancer and choreographer remembered for her "famously impressionistic mood settings".- Early life :...

, then appearing in a private production of Salome
Salome (play)
Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde.The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published...

organised by Ross, was a lesbian associate of the conspirators. This led to a sensational libel case, at which Billing represented himself and won. Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas , nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde...

, a former lover of Oscar Wilde, testified in Billing's favour. Billing's victory in this case created significant popular publicity, and he was re-elected to parliament in the next election.

Inter-war years

After 1921, Billing suffered increasingly from health problems, which led to his eventual resignation from the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 and retirement from politics in 1923. However, he continued to remain active writing literary works and producing films. In 1927, Billing wrote a play, High Treason, inspired by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...

's film Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...

. It was a sci-fi drama about pacifism set in a future 1950, when a "United States of Europe" comes into conflict with the "Empire of the Atlantic States". In 1929 Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey was the most prolific film director in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year....

 made a film of the play, using the same title. It was released in two versions, one silent and the other an early "talkie", but neither proved successful.

World War II

In 1941 Billing attempted to return to politics, seeking to replicate his success during World War I as a critic of the conduct of the war. He advocated the defeat of Germany by bombing alone, and the defence of Britain by a system of spaced light-beams directed upwards, which would confuse enemy bombers. Billing also proposed a post-war reform of the British constitution, arguing that general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

s should be abolished in favour of a rolling programme of by-elections and that a new second chamber should be created, appointed from representatives of trades and professions. He also argued that there should be a separate "Women's parliament" dedicated to "domestic" matters. He stood in four by-elections, most notably in Hornsey
Hornsey (UK Parliament constituency)
Hornsey was a parliamentary constituency covering what is now the Hornsey district of North London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from the 1885 general election until it was abolished for the 1983 general election...

. However, he was unable to take any seats.

Inventions

In 1922, Billing patented a recording system intended to produce records with ten times the capacity of existing systems, but its complexity prevented popular uptake; it depended on a progressive gearing system which reduced the rotational speed of the record as it played, so that the linear speed at which the recorded groove passed the needle remained constant. A further musical invention, the "unbreakable record", was marketed by Duophone in 1925, but failed to take off, as it rapidly wore out needles.

In 1936, Billing designed the miniature "Le Coultre Compass" camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

. In 1948, he devised the "Phantom" camera to be used by spies. It never entered production, but its rarity led one to sell for £120,000, a record price for any camera, in 2001.

Shortly before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Billing claimed to have invented an uncrewed flying bomb
Flying bomb
A flying bomb is a manned or unmanned aerial vehicle or aircraft carrying a large explosive warhead, a precursor to contemporary cruise missiles...

, but the design was not pursued.

Representations in literature

Novelist Pat Barker
Pat Barker
Pat Barker CBE, FRSL is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.-Personal life:...

's award-winning World War I trilogy - Regeneration
Regeneration (novel)
For the 1997 film adaptation of the novel see Regeneration .Regeneration is a prize-winning novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication...

, The Eye in the Door
The Eye in the Door
The Eye in the Door is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1993, and forming the second part of the Regeneration trilogy.The Eye in the Door is set in London, beginning in mid-April, 1918, and continues the interwoven stories of Dr William Rivers, Billy Prior, and Siegfried Sassoon begun in...

and The Ghost Road
The Ghost Road
The Ghost Road is a novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War...

- was set against the backdrop of the Billing campaigns against homosexuality, with several characters mentioning his ominous black book
Black book
- History :* The Black Book, the list of people to be arrested by the Gestapo following a planned Nazi invasion of Britain in the Second World War* Black Book , a compilation of documentary reports about the actions of Nazis against Jews in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust- Literature :* The...

. The middle novel, in particular, deals with the psychiatric treatment of soldiers torn between patriotism and pacifism, and between homosexuality and heterosexuality.

Further reading

  • Barbara Stoney, Twentieth Century Maverick. East Grinstead: Manor House Books, 2004.
  • Barry Powers, Strategy Without Slide-Rule: British Air Strategy 1914-1939, London UK, Croom Helm, 1976
  • Hoare, Philip, Wilde's Last Stand: Scandal, Decadence and Conspiracy During the Great War, Duckworth Overlook, London and New York, 1997, 2nd ed., 2011. (concerning Pemberton Billing's trial for criminal libel).
  • James Hayward, Myths and Legends of the First World War. Stroud: Sutton, 2002.
  • Pemberton-Billing, Noel, Air War: How to Wage It, with some suggestions for the defence of the great cities, Portsmouth UK, Gale & Polden
    Gale & Polden
    Gale and Polden was a British printer and publisher. Founded in Brompton, near Chatham, Kent in 1868, the business subsequently moved to Aldershot, where they were based until closure in November 1981 after the company had been bought by media mogul Robert Maxwell.-Early years:The firm of Gale and...

    , 1916, 74pp

External links

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