AVIATION - Menu commemorating the first flight from London to Brighton.

AVIATION - First Flight London to Brighton. Dinner to [sic] O. C. Morison Esqr. Ascended Brooklands 3.50pm. Descended Brighton Beach 4.55pm. Feb. 15^th 1911. Royal York Hotel. Brighton. Feb 20^th 1911. Alderman Edward Geere, Deputy Mayor, in the Chair. [?Brighton: no printer], 1911. Single card, folded to form bifolium (216 x 178mm). Printed menu and toast list, with pictorial cover (some staining at edges). SIGNED IN PENCIL ON THE COVER BY O. C. MORISON AND HARRY PRESTON, and a third unknown signatory, possibly James [?]Plante. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE. This menu commemorates a landmark in British aviation. Since Bleriot first flew across the English Channel in 1909, the south east of England, and the Brighton and Shoreham areas in particular, had been centres for the feats of pioneering aviators. The dinner recorded in the menu, hosted by local businessman and keen supporter of aviation Harry Preston, commemorates the first flight from London to Brighton which was made by Oscar Morison in his Bleriot XI monoplane. Flying from Brooklands Aerodrome, near Weybridge, he crash-landed on Brighton beach at “Banjo Groyne” but was unharmed and attended the dinner given in his honour just five days later. The broken propellor from the flight has recently found a new home in Brighton Museum.