here, namely, Captain Fulton's Bleriot and
the first biplane of the Bristol Company. On this occasion he crashed
and broke both his ankles. When the Air Battalion was formed in 1911 he
chose to work with airships, and was given the command of the airship
company. His courage and gallantry were unfailing, and his parachute
descents were legion. When Professor Gaudron fell ill, and was prevented
from giving his exhibition descents in a parachute at the Alexandra
Palace, Captain Maitland took his place. He was the first to make a
parachute descent from an airship; this was from the airship _Delta_, in
1913. In 1915, for the purpose of experiment, he descended in a
parachute liberated from a spherical balloon at a height of 10,500 feet.
In 1917 he jumped, with his parachute, from an airship over the sea at a
height of a thousand feet. He believed that the parachute is a
necessary adjunct to the airship, and that by practice and experience it
can be brought into safe habitual use. So he did not sit on a fence and
watch the thistledown, but took every opportunity that presented itself
for a parachute descent. One such opportunity he refused. When, on the
24th of August 1921, he was killed in the disaster to the R 38, he spent
his last moments in endeavouring to check and control the fall of the
airship. He was free from self-regard, and had the devotion of all who
served with him. His life, though it ended in its prime, was
surprisingly long, for he had made danger his friend, and in the
advancement of the cause to which he dedicated himself had welcomed
every risk.

Under Major Maitland's command the airship squadron--that is to say, No.
1 Squadron--grew in strength and efficiency, but it was cut off in its
youth from the aeroplane squadrons. Expert opinion, which was divided on
the military value of airships, was united on their naval value. Not
without protest the decision was made to hand over all the airships to
the navy, and at the close of the year 1913 this was done. An airship is
much more costly than an aeroplane, whether to construct or to work, and
when it flies at a moderate height for the purposes of military
reconnaissance, it is much more vulnerable. This, no doubt, was the
consideration which determined the severance of the airships from the
army. Yet the airships, during their brief period of service with the
Military Wing, had demonstrated in the most convincing fashion the
enormous value of aerial reconnai