1. Francis Howard Bickerton was an English treasure hunter, Antarctic explorer, soldier, aeronaut, entrepreneur, big-game hunter and movie-maker.
18 Facts About Frank Bickerton
1. 2.
Frank Bickerton was a friend of author Vita Sackville-West and was the model for the character of Leonard Anquetil in her 1930 novel The Edwardians.
3.
Francis Howard Frank Bickerton was born in Iffley, Oxfordshire, on 15 January 1889, the son of Joseph Jones Frank Bickerton, liberal councillor and town clerk of Oxford, and his second wife Eliza Frances Fox.
4.
Frank Bickerton received his early schooling from Joseph John Cross at Newton Abbot Hall before moving on to Marlborough College, where he boarded from 1901 to 1904.
5.
Immediately upon his return from Cocos Island, Frank Bickerton volunteered for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Dr Douglas Mawson.
6.
Mawson had determined to take a Vicker's REP monoplane to undertake survey work and Frank Bickerton was appointed as mechanical engineer with responsibility for the maintenance of this, the first powered aircraft in Antarctica.
7.
In October 1912, Frank Bickerton was chosen to lead one of the expedition's four main sledging parties.
8.
Shortly after the party's return from Norway, Britain declared war on Germany and Frank Bickerton decided to abandon any plans for a return to Antarctica and instead joined the Army.
9.
On 11 September 1914, Frank Bickerton enlisted with the 16th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.
10.
In May 1916, Frank Bickerton volunteered to serve as an aerial gunner and observer with the Royal Flying Corps.
11.
From August 1916 to February 1917, Frank Bickerton recuperated in England.
12.
Frank Bickerton then attended the No 1 School of Military Aeronautics at Reading and the Central Flying School at Upavon in Wiltshire, where he trained as a pilot.
13.
The former fell passionately in love with Frank Bickerton and asked him to become the father of her child, while the latter took Frank Bickerton as the model for Leonard Anquetil, the hero of her best novel, The Edwardians.
14.
In 1928, Frank Bickerton abandoned his farm in Newfoundland and decided to invest capital in a company founded by the American equestrian and golfing champion, Marion Hollins.
15.
Back in England, Frank Bickerton took up a role within the film industry, working as screenwriter and film-editor on a range of films, including My Irish Molly with Maureen O'Hara and an adaptation of Jack London's Mutiny of the Elsinore with the future Oscar-winner Paul Lukas.
16.
On 27 May 1937, Frank Bickerton married Lady Joan Chetwynd-Talbot, sister of the Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had one daughter.
17.
Frank Bickerton served with distinction throughout the war, ending with the rank of Wing Commander, mentioned-in-despatches.
18.
Frank Bickerton died on 21 August 1954 in the Welsh town of Borth in Cardiganshire.