aff College. The possibilities of
aviation very early took possession of his mind. In 1909, from the
cliffs of Dover, he saw M. Bleriot arrive in a monoplane, and was so
impressed by the sight that he went straight to the War Office to draw
attention to the military significance of this portent, and its threat
to our insular security. From this time forward his mind was set on
aeronautics. He applied for military aviation service before the Flying
Corps was formed, and in May 1912 repeated his application. 'A Staff
Officer', he noted in his diary, 'should know the capabilities of
aviation. He should be able to observe from an aeroplane and to travel
by aeroplane with dispatches.' At last, in October 1912, during a short
period of leave, he learned to fly at the Bristol Flying School on
Salisbury Plain. In the following spring he was gazetted a squadron
commander in the Royal Flying Corps. He was at once appointed assistant
commandant and officer in charge of experiments. His utility to the
Flying Corps, while it was in the making, was immense. He urged that new
squadrons should be formed even while machines were lacking, so that the
organization and discipline should be perfected in advance. The flying
training of the corps, he insisted, should always have a clear military
purpose in view. He was no militarist, but he was a good soldier, and he
knew the imminence of war with Germany. As early as December 1911, in a
lecture which he delivered in Malta, he predicted the war. 'When it
comes,' he said, 'be assured it will come suddenly. We shall wake up one
night, and find ourselves at war.... Another thing is certain. This war
will be no walk-over.... In the military sphere it will be the hardest,
fiercest, and bloodiest struggle we have ever had to face; let us fully
make up our minds to that, and probably every one of us here to-night
will take part in it. We need not be afraid of overdoing our
preparations.'

For two years Major Musgrave worked hard in helping to prepare the
Flying Corps for its coming ordeal. In the spring of 1914 a headquarters
flight was placed at his disposal for technical work in many kinds. Up
to this time there had been two kinds of experimental work; the National
Physical Laboratory was responsible for purely scientific experiments,
while the commanders of squadrons tested new ideas in practice. But
these two sets of men worked under very different conditions, and
neither of them fully understoo