MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The propellor from an aeroplane that a First World War fighter pilot from Mossel Bay died in, is housed in the Masonic Lodge in Marsh Street in town.
After the Mossel Bay Advertiser reported on Friday, 15 June, that Andrew Beauchamp Proctor was awarded a Victoria
Cross after the war, freemason Trevor Lotter of Dana Bay, told the Advertiser Beauchamp Proctor's propellor was at the lodge.
Under the wooden propellor, mounted on a wall, is a photograph of some of the crew of the ship on which Beauchamp Proctor's remains were brought to Mossel Bay to be buried in Mafeking. Some of the crew were freemasons from Mossel Bay. Beauchamp Proctor's father, John James Proctor, was master of the Mossel Bay lodge in 1895.
Beauchamp Proctor was only 26 when he crashed into a field in Wiltshire in England on 21 June 1921. He was flying a Sopwith Snipe.
He was particularly short - 157.48 metres tall. But Beauchamp Proctor was described as "the little man with the guts of a lion".
As a child he attended school in George, then in Mafeking. After that he was a boarder at SACS in Cape Town. He studied for an Engineering diploma at the South African College and successfully completed his third year.
Between 2 January and 8 October 1918 Beauchamp Proctor shot down 22 enemy aircraft, forced 16 others out of control to the ground and destroyed 16 kite balloons - a remarkable number of victories for such a short period.
John James Proctor.
Beauchamp Proctor's medals.
The propellor.
His father had been a teacher and had served voluntarily in two wars - as a lieutenant in the Gun War in Basutoland in 1880 and as a military commander of Simon's Town during the South African War.
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