William Rowland Ding - (1885 - 1917)
Introduction Rowland Ding was working as the chief test pilot for the Blackburn Aircraft company when he tragically lost his life in an accident on the evening of Saturday the 12th of May 1917 near Roundhay Park, Leeds. The crash that cost Rowland Ding his life has been quite well documented in a number of sources but information about his earlier life and career has been harder to find. Thankfully a number of early aviation publications are now available digitally either via the publisher or via the Internet Archive project (archive.org) allowing a large volume of additional material to be located. I am also very grateful to the staff of the archives of BAE Systems at Brough for allowing me to visit and view numerous original copies of 'The Olympian' magazine and photographs held in their collection. I hope that the information I have collected will help to provide additional context to the story of Rowland Ding, his life and his career as a daredevil pilot during the early d...