by Mick Mirkovic

Bristol M.1c 'Red_Devil', Minlaton, c.2019

The only original Bristol M.1c that survives today, lives in at The Harry Butler Museum in Minlaton on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. This aircraft came to Australia in 1919 after it was purchased by South Australian Capt. Harry Butler (ex-RAF) with his partner engineer Capt. H.A. Kauper (late of Sopwith, co-inventor of the Sopwith-Kauper interrupter gear and Harry Hawker’s friend) in 1919 before returning to Australia post WWI.

He served as an instructor at No.4 School of Aerial Gunnery at Maske-by-the Sea in Yorkshire, where he flew this aircraft. Buying this aircraft along with an Avro 504J and 3 Le Rhone engines, they were going to set up an aviation business in Adelaide. After being re-assembled in Adelaide, he flew it to hometown of Minlaton on August 6, 1919. He used for barnstorming, leaflet dropping, air mail (the first airmail flight in S.A.) and racing, winning the Peace Loan Aerial Derby in Adelaide on Sept., 8, 1920.

Bristol M.1c C5001 in 1918 when it served with RAF's No. 4 School of Aerial Gunnery at Marske by the Sea, Yorkshire. A najor difference from it's current form as seen in the heading photo.

In 1921 it was allocated the civil registration of G-AUCH but never wore it. After Harry’s death in 1924, due to the effects of a crash in his Avro in 1922, the aircraft had been put in storage. In 1930 it was purchased by MMA’s co-founder Horatio Clive ‘Horrie’ Miller and moved to Parafield, where it was reengined and modified (fuselage flattened to much the profile of the new engine) with a Gipsy 1 inline engine and registered as VH-UQI and painted Aluminium dope overall and named ‘Puck’. Horrie used it for aerial racing and won 1931 and 1932 Adelaide Aerial Derbys.

He used it intermittently and had it re-engined with a Gipsy II and later a Gipsy III engine after that and it was struck from the civil register in 1936 but in 1940 he received a ferry permit for it and flew from Parafield to MMA’s new home at Perth’s Maylands Airport and later Guildford airport (today’s Perth International and Domestic Airport). It was stored in one of the hangars and rarely flown but occassionally brought out for shows and displays. In 1956 in was gifted to the town of Minlaton for display in memory of Harry Butler. It went to Essendon first to be restored and then returned to Parafield and onto Minlaton. In 1973 it was refitted with a Le Rhone engine but was not fully restored. It was later fully restored to its original configuration and now can been seen at the museum in Minalton.

Hit next to go to the 2nd page on Bristol M.1c Down Under.