1. Frederick Sidney Cotton was an Australian inventor, photographer and aviation and photography pioneer, responsible for developing and promoting an early colour film process, and largely responsible for the development of photographic reconnaissance before and during World War II.
Sidney Cotton numbered among his close friends George Eastman, Ian Fleming and Winston Churchill.
Frederick Sidney Cotton was born on 17 June 1894 on a cattle station at Goorganga, near Proserpine, Queensland.
Sidney Cotton was the third child of Alfred and Annie Cotton, who were involved in pastoralism.
Sidney Cotton had wanted to join the Australian Imperial Force, which had been raised to assist with the war effort, but Sidney Cotton's father forbade him from enlisting.
Sidney Cotton booked a passage to England on board the ocean liner Maloja, the majority of whose passengers were young Australians like himself determined to "do their bit" for king and country.
Sidney Cotton went to England to join the Royal Naval Air Service in November 1915.
Sidney Cotton went on to participate in night bombing sorties over France and Germany with Nos 3 and 5 Wings.
Sidney Cotton was first based with Number 5 wing in Coudekerque where he undertook bombing raids over the German lines.
Sidney Cotton was then assigned to the Number 5 wing based in Luxeuil where he undertook bombing raids over southern Germany.
Sidney Cotton continued with No 8 Squadron RNAS in 1917 where he was promoted to Flight Sub-Lieutenant in June 1917.
Sidney Cotton then spent three years working in Newfoundland flying various assignments.
From this time up until the outbreak of the Second World War, Sidney Cotton led a colourful and eventful life; he took part in various business activities, including an airborne seal-spotting service as well as aerial search and rescue operations for lost explorers in Newfoundland and Greenland.
Sidney Cotton was for much of the 1920s based in St John's, the capital of the Dominion of Newfoundland, where he was employed by sealer firms to work as an aircraft spotter to find sealers out in the ice fields of the Arctic Ocean.
In 1927, when two French airmen, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, vanished in an attempt to cross the Atlantic non-stop, Sidney Cotton was hired by the wealthy Du Pont family to try to find the two missing airmen.
In 1931, Sidney Cotton found and rescued the British Arctic explorer Augustine Courtauld who had been trapped in an ice field in Greenland.
At a time when most photographs were in black and white, Sidney Cotton purchased the rights to sell outside of France a French colour film called Dufaycolor, which led him to engage in frequent travels.
In September 1938 during the Sudetenland crisis, Sidney Cotton was approached by agents of the Deuxieme Bureau to undertake spy flights over Germany.
Sidney Cotton's mission was the same as before, using flights for the Aeronautical Research and Sales Corporation as a cover for espionage with the only difference being that his paymasters were MI6 instead of the Deuxieme Bureau.
Sidney Cotton turned over his Lockheed Electra airplane to the Deuxieme Bureau while MI6 provided Sidney Cotton with a new Lockheed 12-A Electra aircraft.
Sidney Cotton equipped the civilian Lockheed 12A business aircraft, G-AFTL, with three F24 cameras concealed behind panels which could be slid aside and operated by pressing a button under the pilot's seat, and a Leica behind a similar panel in the wings.
Sidney Cotton had a very persuasive manner, and exploited any advantage he could.
In 1939, Sidney Cotton took aerial photos during a flight over parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
Sidney Cotton later offered to fly Hermann Goring to London for talks a week before outbreak of hostilities.
Sidney Cotton believed if only Chamberlain and Goring could meet in secret that it was possible to work out a peaceful solution to the crisis and avoid a war where millions would die.
Sidney Cotton's flight was the last civilian aircraft to leave Berlin before the outbreak of hostilities.
The PDU was originally equipped with Bristol Blenheims, but Sidney Cotton considered these quite unsuitable, being far too slow, and he consequently wheedled a couple of Supermarine Spitfires.
In 1940, Sidney Cotton personally made another important reconnaissance flight with his Lockheed 12A over Soviet Azerbaijan via Iraq as part of the preparations for Operation Pike.
Sidney Cotton worked on ideas such as a prototype specialist reconnaissance aircraft and further refinements of photographic equipment.
Sidney Cotton was removed from his post and banned from any involvement with air operations.
In September 1940, Sidney Cotton's modified Lockheed 12A, was severely damaged in an air raid at Heston Aerodrome.
In September 1940, Sidney Cotton pursued the idea of an airborne searchlight for night-fighters, that he termed 'Aerial Target Illumination'.
Sidney Cotton enlisted the help of William Helmore, and they jointly took out patents on the techniques.
Sidney Cotton was reluctant to profit from his wartime innovations and even waived his patent rights on the Sidcot suit.
Around the time of the Partition of India in 1947, Sidney Cotton was hired by the independent princely state of Hyderabad to assist it in resisting integration into the Dominion of India.
Sidney Cotton was living at Ford Manor, Lingfield when he died on 13 February 1969 aged 74.
Sidney Cotton served at least partly as the basis for the James Bond character created by his friend Ian Fleming, most notably in his womanising and a general disdain for authority.