EA & Rhodesia - 8/1/59 - Squadron Leader C.A. "Bunch" Hooper, who has died in a Sevenoaks nursing home aged 67, had spent many years in Kenya. Born in Worcester, and educated at Uppingham, he was an engineering apprentice with Daimler & Co., Ltd., from 1910 to 1913, when he transferred to the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough. He then taught himself to fly, and in 1914 he joined the Royal Flying Corps and went to France. In 1915 he was lent to the Bristol Aircraft Co. Ltd., as a test pilot, while simultaneously commanding the RFC station at Filton, for, owing to head injuries received on the Western Front, he was barred from further flying duties. He went to Kenya in 1921 as managing director of Lamberts Ltd., an engineering company, subsequently entered the motor trade in Nairobi as managing director of York Garages Ltd. And later formed Hooper & Carnie Ltd., which was absorbed in 1928 in the Overseas Motor Transport Co. (EA) Ltd. He rejoined the Kenya Auxiliary Air Unit in 1939 as its senior officer, and was later transferred to General Dickinson's staff for the Ethiopia campaign as GSO II (air). Later he returned to air staff duties with the RAF, and at different periods commanded RAF stations at Kisumu, Mogadishu and Mauritius. He was president of the Aero Club of East Africa from 1928 to 1937, and again from 1947-48.

Kenya Gazette 13 Jan 1959 - probate

The Natal Mercury - 16 August 1939 - 'His Plane Became a Glider' - "The aeroplane was travelling along nicely at 4,000 feet; a split second later the engine whirled out of the aircraft and I was piloting a glider." This was how Major C.A. Hooper described the crash in which he and Mr W.C. Mitchell, both of Nairobi, had a miraculous escape from death on Saturday. Their plane dropped from 4,000 feet into the thick thorn bush of Maputaland. When they were over Lake Sibayi, 50 miles east of Gollel, the airscrew of their Miles Hawk Major broke at the boss. The terrific vibration of the unbalanced airscrew threw the engine out of the fuselage. Major Hooper managed to keep the aircraft in control. He spiralled to the ground and "pancaked." "There was no time to switch off," said Major Hooper. "One moment there was an engine and airscrew, the next the engine had gone overboard. It was as quick as that. I found my feet pointing through the end of the aircraft; I was in charge of a glider, but a very uncontrollable one without a rudder bar, which the engine had carried away. "I came down in wide spirals which became tighter as the aircraft lost altitude. It was fortunate there was thick bush to break the force of the impact." Mr Mitchell, who was sitting behind, was not aware immediately the engine had gone overboard. When Major Hooper told him through the telephone that the engine had gone, Mr Mitchell thought the motor had cut out so he obediently switched off. The Natives who cut their way to the wreck were amazed that the two men had survived. They led them to the engine which had fallen three-quarters of a mile from the fuselage. Major Hooper and Mr Mitchell felt that the regulations for civil aviation in the Union were not as complete as they might be. It was the custom in Kenya and Tanganyika, they said, for one airport to notify the next airport of the departure of an aircraft. When they crashed, both airmen thought similar regulations applied in the Union.

Air - Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 984 dated 18 Nov 1914 - Maurice Farman Biplane, Central Flying School, Upavon, Wilts

Red 31 has Major C.A. Hooper, Nairobi

Gazette 16 Nov 1936 Voters List 1936 - Clifford Alban Hooper, Engineer, Box 283, Muthaiga

Gazette 14 July 1959 probate says he died at Sevenoaks