Hillmans Airways

Hillman Airways was founded by Edward Henry Hillman who during the course of a comparatively short but eventful life, rose from the humblest beginnings to become not only the proprietor of the world’s largest privately-owned bus fleet, but also a substantial airline. The company was formed on 26th November 1931 as Hillman's Saloon Coaches and Airways Limited. They flew out of a small airfield in Essex between Brentwood and Romford called Maylands. From 1 December 1934, the airline was given a contract to fly air mail between London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast formerly operated by the Railway Air Services. On 1 June 1934, the airline moved its operating base from Maylands Aerodrome to Stapleford Aerodrome, Essex. In October 1935 it merged with Spartan Airways and United Airways to form British Airways. The company issued no official envelopes for its first flight although it did approve an envelope designed and printed by the Liverpool stamp dealer John Davis. The covers are made of wove paper and show a map of Great Britain with a large airplane superimposed. Both are in blue. 961 of these envelopes were flown. Pilot signed covers are numerous and they are not always signed by the pilot that flew the plane! The London to Glasgow flight was flown by Capt. W Anderson and the other way by Capt. C.E.N. Pelly. The contract expired on 30 Nov 1935 and awarded once more to R.A.S. Most of the envelopes seen for Hillman Airways are for the first flight of the air mail contract starting on 1st November 1934. There are three types of first day covers, plain envelopes, the Davis covers printed by Liverpool dealer John S. Davis, another dealer A. Philips produced an envelope with a different coloured plane depending on the starting point.

Hillman Airways. First Flight of new London to Glasgow mail contract. 1st December 1934.

Hillman Airways took over from RAS for the London to Glasgow mail contract on 1st December 1934. The route was different from the RAS route. There were only two stops now between London and Glasgow, Liverpool and Belfast. Flights originated in Glasgow where the daily plane left at 8.30 am it left Belfast at 9.30, left Liverpool 10.45 and arrived London at 12.05. A different plane went on the route to Glasgow, it did not wait for the plane flying down. It left Stapleford Airport at 10.00 am, left Liverpool at 11.20 and left Belfast at 12.35 arriving Glasgow at 1.35 pm.

The GPO Announces the service.

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British Internal Airmails of the 1930’s

Black ‘busy’ Davis envelope proof in black. Various comments in pencil show the future intention. ‘1000 required Blue’ shows the number required and the colour. ‘250 wanted Wed’ shows 250 were required on the 28th. The purple date cachet shows the date this was sent to Davis. ‘Mr Davis’ is the clients name. ‘Order No C14 is self explanatory. The writing under the map which was printed as ‘BY HILLMAN AIRMAIL LTD’ has been corrected to ‘BY HILLMAN AIRWAYS LTD.

The final mint version as produced.

Davis Covers

The Liverpool dealer John Davis had 1000 envelopes printed with a dark blue picture of a plane over a map of Great Britain. Apparently 950 of these were flown. This would have left 50 mint envelopes, but mint envelopes are quite scarce so the number may not have been that high. The timescale for the production of these envelopes is not known, but it may have been quite tight as seen from a proof envelope shown below which was sent to Davis for approval on the 28th November.

Glasgow to London

Belfast to Liverpool.

Belfast to London

Liverpool to London

Glasgow to Belfast. Pilot signed.

Glasgow to Liverpool.

Pilot signed.

London to Liverpool

London to Belfast

Glasgow to London. Pilot signed.

Belfast to Liverpool. Pilot signed.

Belfast to London

Liverpool to London. Pilot signed.

London to Liverpool. Pilot signed.

London to Belfast. Pilot signed.

London to Glasgow Pilot signed.

Liverpool to Belfast. Philips cover.

Philips cover. Belfast to Glasgow

London to Glasgow Pilot signed.

Liverpool to Belfast. Pilot signed.

Phillips Covers

Phillips produced different envelopes depending on where the cover started.

Philips cover. Liverpool to Belfast.

Phillips cover. London to Belfast

Other First Flight Covers

Business reply Service. Belfast to Liverpool

Pitman cover. Glasgow to Belfast.

Glasgow receiving cachets.

On 2nd February, 1935, during the operation of the mail-carrying services of Hillman’s AIrways Ltd, to and from Glasgow, the Postmaster-Surveyor at Glasgow introduced the plan of applying a special cachet to incoming air amil in order to popularize the internal air service. The scheme was short lived but during it operation four types of cachet were employed.

Type 1 cachet. Solid Wings.

Type 2 cachet. Hollow Wings.

Type 3 cachet. Solid Wings. ‘BY’ added

Type 4 cachet. Hollow Wings. ‘BY’ added

On March 1935 the authorities considered it advisable to alter the wording of the type one cachet by adding the word BY this alteration became known as type three. These dies were affixed into the cancelling machine without the date and time section, thus the mail had to go through two machines prior to being sorted. It transpired that on one day the ink pad had not been changed and a very few examples were stuck with a RED impression.

Unusual usage. Dublin to Glasgow

The Glasgow cachets had finished by the end of the Hillman’s cachet on the 1st December 1935. It is not known how this cachet of the 27th August 1936, got through the system.

Philips cover. Glasgow to Belfast