Whatever happened to Bentfield Charles Hucks?

The Tornado with B C Hucks and passenger

In January 1914 Bentfield Charles Hucks, an aviation innovator in the early 20th century, unintentionally landed his aeroplane during a 30-mile trip to Leeds near Nick Road Farm, Wardle and had to be towed back to Manchester behind a milk float.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/138/community-news/112155/wardle-and-smallbridge-history-group-share-jim-tweedale-articles-the-flying-machine-that-closed-the-mills

Mr Hucks was something of a public figure, being the first Englishman to `loop the loop` and was at that time on his way to Leeds to give one of his regular demonstrations of this skill.

In July of the same year, he had another lucky escape when his engine cut out and he had to land on the sands below the cliff at Scarborough.

In early August he volunteered to join the Royal Flying Corps, becoming Captain B.C Hucks Royal Air Force, where he flew over the German lines as an Observer to gather information for the artillery.

Newspapers repeated the story of how troops on the ground had witnessed him chasing off a German aircraft that was over the Allied trenches. Both the planes were unarmed but they said that they saw Hucks pull out a revolver with his left hand and shoot at the German, who then made for the safety of his own area.

On another occasion, an anti-aircraft shell passed through the fabric of the wing, then between him and his passenger. He said that he didn't visualise the aircraft being used for anything other than observation and predicted that ‘bombs from aircraft cannot do much harm’.

He was soon invalided out of the Royal Flying Corps with pleurisy and pneumonia and died of double pneumonia in 1918, brought on by ‘the greatest pandemic in history’ - Spanish flu.