Cripes! Biggles was real: Adventurer hero named after Great War airman

 The RAF Museum has found evidence that the literary hero was a real pilot

• Discovered a court report from Major James Bigglesworth
• The document was found amongst author W E Johns' manuscripts
• Character was a daring adventurer epitomising traditional Imperial values

By Daily Mail Reporter 1 April, 2013

Biggles: A real life Major James Bigglesworth has been discovered

For decades, Biggles has held children in thrall with his fictional exploits as a dashing Royal Air Force pilot.
But now it has emerged that his unlikely adventures may have been based on fact – in the shape of a real airman from the First World War.

A 1918 combat report by a pilot called Major James Bigglesworth has been found at the RAF Museum in a collection of papers that once belonged to Biggles author WE Johns.

The full name of the Biggles of the books was exactly the same – James Bigglesworth.
The vital document was kept in the manuscript of a book Johns published in 1953 as Biggles in the Gobi.
The museum’s researchers have been combing through their files to find further evidence of Bigglesworth’s career in the services.
Adding to the mystery, none has turned up so far.

Peter Elliott, who is in charge of the museum’s archives, said: ‘The WE Johns archive fills the curators with dread as his handwriting is famously terrible.
‘The combat report was tucked into a manuscript and would not have been found if we hadn’t been reviewing our material for the First World War.
‘RAF record-keeping was pretty thorough, but there is some evidence of Bigglesworth’s name having been removed from other sources, possibly for security reasons when he moved to the Special Air Police later in his career.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302020/Cripes-Biggles-real-Adventurer-hero-named-Great-War-airman.html#ixzz2S05xmoiS 

Footnote:
When I am overseas I frequently tear pages from newspapers and magazines with a view to re-reading them later or perhaps linking them on my blog. I tore the above cutting out of The Daily Mail after reading it on the Tube while in London last month. I put the page inside the book I was reading at the time and today at home while shelving some books it fell out and I read the story again. It is only now that I realise it was published on 1 April !