1 January 1892 – 18 January 1966.

Test Pilot and winner of the 1922 Schneider Trophy.

Henry Charles Amedie de la Faye Biard was born on 1 January 1892 in Godalming, Surrey, to his French father, a schoolteacher at Charterhouse, and English mother. Biard described himself as Anglo-French and would use both Henry and Henri. Biard spent some of his teenage years living in Jersey with his family, where he and his brother, attended Victoria College.

Living back in England, Biard developed a desire to learn to fly at the age of 17, later gaining his Royal Aero Club Aviator’s Certificate. In 1913, while at the Central Flying School at Upavon, near Salisbury, Biard was awarded a probationary commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. A little over a year later he resigned his commission.

Biard was staying with his grandparents in Northern France when war broke out. Within a few days of witnessing French refugees heading west, German cavalry had arrived and set fire to several properties, including his grandparent’s farm. On his return to England, Biard made his way to Hendon, where, for the next two years, he would train young aviators at the Grahame-White Flying School before they headed to France. In 1917, Biard was commissioned as a Probationary Flight Officer (Temporary) in the RNAS, flying anti-submarine patrols in a Wright seaplane.

By the middle of 1919, Biard had been decommissioned, prompting him to apply for a job as a test pilot at Supermarine, in Woolston, Southampton. His new role saw him testing new and production aircraft, eventually being promoted to Chief Test Pilot. Biard also flew the often long and difficult cross-channel flights from Woolston to Le Havre for British Marine Air Navigation Co. Ltd, a joint venture between Supermarine and Southern Railway.

In 1922, Biard was selected to pilot the Supermarine Sea Lion II at that year’s Schneider Trophy, which he proceeded to win. In 1923 he went on to take third place, flying the Sea Lion III. With the contest postponed in 1924, Biard set sail for America the following year, where he was to pilot the Supermarine S4 in the 1925 Schneider Trophy, being held in Baltimore. Baird broke his wrist during the crossing, and also fell ill with flu. Once in America, the S4 suffered damage to its tail plane when a tent fell due to high winds. During a test run, ahead of the race, the S4 crashed, wrecking the seaplane, and Biard had to be rescued. However, due to the speed boat breaking down, Biard, now also suffering from two cracked ribs, was in the water for nearly an hour. The Supermarine S4 suffered from Wing Flutter, but despite this, before setting sail for America, Biard achieved an average speed of 226.75mph, gaining the British air speed record, and the world floatplane record.

Biard remained with Supermarine until 1933 when he was made redundant, after the company had been sold to Vickers-Armstrong. Biard went on to work with the Guernsey Meteorology Service, before returning to the RAF at the outbreak of the Second World War, working from Hendon as a communications pilot. After the war he returned to Guernsey. Biard died in Charminster, in Dorset, on the 18th of January 1966.