the Flying Corps in France.

From the beginning of 1914 onwards, No. 3 Squadron also began a whole
series of experiments in photography; Government funds were scanty, and
the officers bought their own cameras. There was no skilled photographer
among them, but they set themselves to learn. They devised the type of
camera which was used in the air service until 1915, when Messrs. J. T.
C. Moore-Brabazon and C. D. M. Campbell brought out their first camera.
They would develop negatives in the air, and, after a reconnaissance
would land with the negatives ready to print. In one day, at a height of
five thousand feet and over, they took a complete series of photographs
of the defences of the Isle of Wight and the Solent.

From time to time there were a good many adventures by members of the
squadron outside the daily routine. The first night flight made by any
officer of the Military Wing was made on the 16th of April, 1913, by
Lieutenant Cholmondeley, who flew a Maurice Farman machine by moonlight
from the camp at Larkhill to the Central Flying School at Upavon, and
back again. Later in the year Commander Samson, of the Naval Wing,
successfully practised night flying, without any lights on the machine
or the aerodrome; but as a regular business night flying was not taken
in hand by the squadrons until well on in the war. During the month of
July 1913 Lieutenants R. Cholmondeley and G. I. Carmichael became
evangelists for the Flying Corps; they went on a recruiting tour to
Colchester, and gave free passenger trips to all likely converts among
the officers of the garrison there. Long before this, in 1912, the
squadron had begun to train non-commissioned officers to fly. The first
of these to get his certificate was Sergeant F. Ridd. He had originally
been a bricklayer, but after joining the Air Battalion had developed an
extraordinary talent for rigging, and became an all-round accomplished
airman. Others who were taught to fly soon after were W. T. J. McCudden,
the eldest of the four brothers of that name, and W. V. Strugnell, who,
later on, became a flight commander in France. The most famous of the
McCuddens, James Byford McCudden, V.C., who brought down over fifty
enemy aeroplanes, joined the squadron as a mechanic in 1913, and became
a pilot in the second year of the war. In his book, _Five Years with the
Royal Flying Corps_ (1918), he says, 'I often look back and think what a
splendid Squadron No. 3 was. We had a magni