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词条 Elsie Mackay
释义

  1. Biography

  2. Filmography

  3. Interior design

  4. Flying

  5. Transatlantic flight

  6. Commemoration

  7. See also

  8. References

  9. External links

{{for|the West-Australian born actress|Elsie Mackay (actress)}}{{Use British English|date=February 2012}}{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2010}}{{Infobox person
| name = Elsie Mackay
| image = Nothing But the Truth (1920) - 1.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Elsie Mackay (as Poppy Wyndham) and Taylor Holmes in Nothing But the Truth (1920)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1893
| birth_place = Simla, India
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1928|3|13|1893|1|1}}
| death_place = Lost in the Atlantic Ocean
| nationality = British
| occupation = Actress, Interior designer, Aviator
| spouse = Dennis Wyndham
| children =
| religion =
| other_names = Poppy Wyndham
| website =
| footnotes =
}}

Elsie Mackay (c. 1893– c. 13 March 1928) was a British actress, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe[1] in a single engined Stinson Detroiter.[2] Her name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham.

Biography

Mackay was born in 1893 in Simla, India, to James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, a British colonial administrator in India who became chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Jean Paterson Shanks. Her father was serving as President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy of India, and as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.[3]

She was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917. She appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 through 1921. This marriage was annulled in 1922.[3][4][5]

Filmography

Poppy Wyndham's film career included:[4][5][6][7][8]

  • A Great Coup (1919) as Kate Hampton[8]
  • Snow in the Desert (1919)[8]
  • Many a Slip (1919) as The Girl[8]
  • Nothing But the Truth (1920) as Gwendolyn Gerald[8]
  • A Dead Certainty (1920) as Pat Stone[8]
  • The Town of Crooked Ways (1920) as Queenie Clay[8]
  • The Tidal Wave (1920) (as Carmen Hale / Columbine)[8]
  • A Son of David (1920) as Esther Raphael[8]

Interior design

After the marriage to Wyndham was annulled she returned to her family and developed a career as an interior decorator, creating lavish interiors, state rooms and public spaces for her father's shipping line, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). In 1923 she launched the {{RMS|Maloja}}, and went on to design much of the interiors for the four P&O "R" class ships of 1925: SS Rawalpindi, {{SS|Ranchi}}, {{SS|Ranpura}} and {{SS|Rajputana}}, plus the {{RMS|Viceroy of India}} in 1927.[9]

Flying

In 1923 she took up flying, gaining her pilot's licence at the De Havilland Flying School, probably the second woman since World War I after 'Mrs Atkey',[10] bought a plane,[11] and expressed a determination to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic. She was regarded as a contemporary role model amongst women, with dark looks, graceful manner, and a habitually well-dressed and bejewelled appearance. She was noted for driving her Rolls-Royce at great speed and was a familiar sight in her Avro biplane in the skies over South Ayrshire and Wigtownshire.[11][12] She even participated in an "outside loop", the most dangerous of all stunts in air, with Capt. E. C. D. Herne as her pilot. During this manoeuvre her safety-strap broke but she clung to bracing wires while her body swung outside the plane like a stone twirled on the end of a piece of string.[1] She was one of the first women in Britain to gain her Royal Aero Club pilot's licence and was later elected to the advisory committee of pilots to the British Empire Air League.[2]

Transatlantic flight

To achieve her transatlantic ambition Mackay bought a Stinson Detroiter, having been impressed by the aircraft during Ruth Elder's failed 1927 transatlantic attempt (despite an oil leak causing the failure {{convert|300|mi}} over the Atlantic[13]). It was shipped from the US to Britain and delivered to the Brooklands motor racing track, which at the time was also used as an airfield. She named it Endeavour. It was a monoplane with gold tipped wings and a black fuselage, powered by a nine-cylinder, {{convert|300|hp}} Wright Whirlwind J-6-9 (R-975) engine, with a cruising speed of {{convert|84|mph}}.[14]

In early March 1928 the Daily Express discovered that Captain Hinchliffe and Mackay were preparing for a transatlantic attempt by carrying out test flights at RAF Cranwell and were staying at the George Hotel in Leadenham[15] near Grantham. The story was silenced by Mackay's threatened legal action as she intended to depart in secret while her father was in Egypt, having promised her family she would not make the attempt.[2]

At 8:35 am on 13{{nbsp}}March 1928 'Endeavour' took off from RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire,[16] with minimal fuss as Hinchliffe had told only two friends he was going and Elsie registered under the pseudonym of 'Gordon Sinclair'.'[17] Approximately five hours later, at 1.30 pm the chief lighthouse keeper at Mizen Head on the south west coast of Cork, Ireland saw the monoplane over the village of Crookhaven, on the great circle course for Newfoundland.[16] A French steamer later reported seeing them still on course,[17] but nothing else is known. A crowd of 5,000 is reputed to have waited for them at Mitchel Field, Long Island.[1] In December 1928, eight months later, a single piece of identifiable undercarriage (a wheel with a serial number on it) washed ashore in north west Ireland.[2]

Commemoration

Elsie Mackay is commemorated by a stained glass window in the chancel of Glenapp Church in the parish of Ballantrae, Ayrshire (where her father owned the Glenapp estate)[18] Rhododendrons, now somewhat overgrown, spell out "Elsie" on the opposite side of the glen.({{coord|55.0288|-5.014}})[11] A street is named after her in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.[19] Her financial legacy was the Elsie Mackay Fund, a £500,000 trust bequeathed by her father that was left to the British nation on 12 December 1928, for 50 years and used to help pay off the national debt.[11][20][21]

See also

  • Frances Wilson Grayson
  • Amelia Earhart

References

1. ^{{cite news|author= |title=Two Women|date=26 March 1928|work=Time magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,787033,00.html|accessdate=9 August 2008}}
2. ^BBC Radio 4 Making History - Elsie Mackay - article and downloadable broadcast
3. ^The Peerage.com
4. ^[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6808080 Poppy Wyndham at 'Find a Grave' (This source erroneously mentions Lionel Atwill)]
5. ^Many sources confuse and conflate her career with that of the actress of the same name, but IMDB makes clear the distinction with the actress Elsie Mackay who was still performing after 1935.[https://www.imdb.com/find?q=Ellin%20Mackay;s=nm IMDB - Disambiguation page for Elsie Mackay]. That Elsie Mackay was married to the English actor, Lionel Atwill from 1920 until their divorce in 1928.
6. ^{{cite news|author= |title=Movies: About Tidal Wave|date= |work=The New York Times|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/113773/Tidal-Wave/overview|accessdate=9 August 2008| first=Brooks| last=Barnes}}
7. ^The Complete Index To World Film since 1895
8. ^Hollywood upclose - database for Poppy Wyndham
9. ^P & O Line Ships (and technical data) from 1920 to 1930 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100130222100/http://www.freewebs.com/shippinglines/ships1920to1930.htm |date=30 January 2010 }}
10. ^History of the De Havilland Flying School
11. ^Ayrshire Post article - So Brave and so Beautiful
12. ^Picture of Elsie in her Avro Biplane at Jamd.com
13. ^Hargrave - Profile of Ruth Elder
14. ^World War I Modeling Page - WGR Hinchliffe forum
15. ^History of The George Hotel at Leadenham
16. ^World War I Modeling Page -Hinchliffe forum
17. ^Old News of Newfoundland
18. ^.Ballantrae Parish Church
19. ^Gander’s Historic Street Names
20. ^National Archives - Elsie Mackay Fund
21. ^Parliamentary reference to the Elsie Mackay Fund in Hansard

External links

  • {{IMDb name|0943914|Poppy Wyndham}}
  • {{Findagrave|6808080}}
  • BBC Radio 4 Making History - Elsie Mackay overview
  • West over the Waves - Elsie Mackay tribute site
  • [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6808080 Picture of Poppy Wyndham at 'Find a Grave']
  • Pictures of Elsie, her father and mother, and Capt. Walter G. R. Hinchliffe and an erroneous Fokker composite image at Jamd.com
  • Images and Info of Stinson Detroiter SM-1 at Airliners.net
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20161103234800/http://www.crossingthehorizonbook.com/ Crossing the Horizon, a novel based on Elsie Mackay's flight]
{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, Elsie}}

15 : English film actresses|English silent film actresses|English stage actresses|English interior designers|English aviators|Female aviators|Aviation pioneers|Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters|1893 births|1928 deaths|People from Shimla|Missing aviators|20th-century English actresses|Actresses from Himachal Pradesh|British female aviators

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