Skybirds.

[grwebster]

Here is the Skybirds Mew Gull


I didn't know there was a reproduction, but this model was purchased in the early 1980s.
Here are those running Skybirds Piots.

They did a whole series of associated figures, mechanics etc and also supplied outsourced metal vehicles. They made some rather crude metal airport buildings, too.

[angelreader]

GR your Mew Gull is certainly original,the reproduction made by Aeroclub was in white metal,yours is the first example that I have seen,very nice.
Barry.

[atalanta59]

Hi all - I have just discovered your forum and I'm very pleased to read about Skybirds as a discussion topic. My grandfather was Alfred J. Holladay, the MD of the company that made Skybirds from 1932 until about the mid-1940's. Unfortunately he died many years before I was born and I knew very little about them until about twelve yeras ago when I managed to find someone else quite local to me who actually knew a bit about them, and who had met Algy Sinclair who wrote the excellent booklet 'Skybird Notes'. I grew up in the house in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex where Skybirds had there origins, and James Hay Stevens lived just a few minutes walk away. It was Stevens who was the draughtman, designer and writer of many of the notes for the Skybirds kits. After having met Algy Sinclair at the start of 1998 and viewing his amazing collection I became fascinated with Skybirds and the company in general, with their products marketed under the 'Givjoy' logo.
My mother was a quiet person and she told me very little about the company apart from the fact that their premises in central London were destroyed in the Blitz. However, after my parents passed away I had to clear out the old house and I found a few bits and pieces in the loft relating to Skybirds such as a scrapbook of press cuttings and a small trophy medal in a case. I didn't have a computer or much knowledge of the internet back then and I had a hard time trying to find out anything about Skybirds until I met George Burton, who also knew Algy.
Over the past decade or so I have collected a range of products made by the company owned and managed by my grandfather, namely A.J.Holladay & Co. Ltd. The majority of these items are Skybirds planes and their accessories, inc. figures, airport buildings and vehicles. I now have nearly all the planes in assembled and painted form, and also quite a few unmade kits in their original boxes - these I think are fantastic and so beautifully made and laid out, esp. the ones from the early and mid 1930's. For the past three years I have displayed my collection at a local models and hobbies exhibition in Southend-on-Sea, which is close to where I live. I have had a great deal of interest shown in the models and their history, and I aim to put the collection on display again in November at the same venue, this time hopefully with a section acknowledging the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the pilots and other RAF personnel who became interested in flying and aviation in general through the building of Skybirds. I know for certain that this includes the likes of Neville Duke, Donald McKay and Geoffrey Wellum, the last named having his best-selling book 'First Light' serialised on the TV at present.
I notice a mention of a "Skybirds Museum" in the forum - I don't know anything about this but would definitely like to hear more. I believe there is a collection of Skybirds at Mount Stewart House in Northern Ireland - this is a National Trust property and has connections with Skybirds from the 1930's.
This is about as much as I have the time to write at present, but if there is some further interest in Skybirds I would be only too willing to provide any additional information.
Graham Bailey - Rayleigh, Essex. UK

[angelreader]

Dear Graham,I am fascinated and delighted with your posting,thank you so much for making yourself known to us here,historically Skybirds are a very important part of model kitting history but we know that they went beyond the kits and produced complete models for sale that were built by a dedicated team of workers,assembled and painted then sent out to the shops such as Gamages in London.
It is good to know that your efforts to collect Skybirds has been so successful,after so many years they are difficult to find from my own personal experience and that is why I produce replica items to add to my collection,to explain fully the 'Skybirds musem' is part of my own model collection which incidently is the largest in the world gathered by one person totalling now some 35,000 pieces,I dedicated the name for a small corner of it in memory of the great work done by those who originated the Skybirds products,when you look at the map depicted in an early issue of the 'Aeromodeller' magazine you can see the coverage of the Skybird guild was certainly very active in the UK,sadly the free space provided for Skybirds in the 'Aeromodeller' was to be abruptly terminated when there was a management change at their offices,instead of being free they requested a sum of money which Skybirds could not meet at that time as sales were dwindling,the allied accessories were what made the range and the encouragement to make a model airfield layout added to the joy of collecting these delightful miniatures.
I am intrigued with the association of Mr James Hay Stevens,for his age he must have been a very intelligent young man to have draughting skills as he clearly did,his pen and ink sketches are also beautifully done and distinctive,he certainly went successfully onto other things in aviation and wrote frequently in the 'Air Reserve Gazette' publication about aerodynamics,he follwed through with 'Air Pictorial' when the Air League of the British Empire used it as their mouthpiece,I understand he spent some time in France studying French aviation returning to live at Bottle farm,Hant Hill,Charing,Ashford,Kent where he set up a company called 'Aero Enterprises ( JHS ) Ltd flying a De Havilland DH.84 Dragon,Leopard Moth,Percival Proctor and a Moth Minor,there was some business arrangement with a company called Chrisair who leased the aircraft for pleasure flying during the sixties.
Anything else that you can add re the directors of Skybirds will be of great historical interest,we need to get this info in one spot for the future before it is lost in time and then too late,thank you once again for your enlightening post re this great pioneering company.
Barry.

[grwebster]

Graham, a very big welcome to the site.
Very little is known in the USA about Skybirds and it's a fascinating history so any thing you can add here will be gladly received, especially photos.
I had the opportunity of meeting Mr Sinclair, who wrote the only book on Skybirds, at his home. I spent many hours going over his extensive collection. I think I may have mentioned before, but it is worth repeating, that he told me he loathed, detested and despised every second he flew in the RAF during WW2. I do not recall which 4 engined bomber he told me he flew as the sole and single pilot but he truly hated it. He gave me his RAF combat pilot's tie as I too served as a pilot in combat but in another time and another war.
...and so it goes

[angelreader]

GR that is the first time that I have heard anything said like that about wartime service in the RAF ? most of the young men loved the flying aspect having come from mundane jobs in civvy street,my father for example worked as a machine operator on early milling Cincinatti machines but was glad to get into the RAF after his second attempt as a RAFVR,the first time they sent him home and said 'Come back lad when your maths are better' it is ironic to think that in fact he was a mathamatician and a fine engineer as well ! I am wondering if it was the moral angle that made our friend so despised towards his service in the air force ? as you well know things could get tough and the dreaded twitch set in,I have heard so many stories about the LMF encountered by those who flew many missions,the station doctors would soon whisk away the unfortunate pilots or crew as this was considered not a good thing to have them around any more,very sad in many ways as these youngsters put their necks out many times in the quest against the Luftwaffe and war in general.
Strangely enough I found a document amongst some papers the other day about the main reason for bombing,it says 'The main purpose of constant bombing attacks is to break down the population and to bring about a low moral amongst those who live in large towns' the reality of war is brought home when you read things like this.
Things have not changed much and history continues to repeat itself time and again.
By the way I did not know that there was any book done on Skybirds ? how interesting.
Barry.

[grwebster]

I have a copy somewhere, it was a very passionate and complete, self published history.
It was poorly illustrated, unfortunately.

[atalanta59]

Hi all - Just a quick message for now. It's certainly good to see that people are still interested in Skybirds - the name and all it represented don't seem to mean much nowadays for most model aircraft enthusiasts as the company disappeared so long ago. However, I have been most fortunate in managing to acquire a large number of items made by my grandfather's company, and this includes a variety of the old station platforms and engine sheds that were made featuring the 'Givjoy' logo.
Re. Algy Sinclair - I believe he used to fly in Halifaxs, and I seem to recall him mentioning that he didn't like the experience! He had a fantastic collection of planes and also a number of boxed kits. I don't know what happened to the latter but I managed to buy some of his planes from a old toy shop in London. I know they used to belong to him as I recognised the markings from his book 'Skybird Notes'!
I also have a number of James Hay Stevens original scratch built 1/32 scale aircraft that pre-date Skybirds - it was one of these that my grandfather admired and that convinced him that the planes could be made commercially, though on half the scale. The rest is history, as they say.
Sorry need to end here as starting work now.
Hope for some more replies!.
Graham Bailey

[angelreader]

Graham you really must get some photographs here of those original 1=32nd scale models done by JHS,we would love to see them and I never realised that these models still existed,can you photograph the Skybirds items you have and we can assist you getting them posted if necessary.

Those larger models are so historically important to the whole history of Skybirds,they are treasures and thank goodness that they are in good hands,if necessary you can always e-mail the pictures to one of us and then the technical side can be sorted out,thank you for your interest and yes you have found the right place to talk about these items from the past.

Barry.

[atalanta59]

Hi Barry et al - Yes, I can certainly get some photos of the JHS 1/32 scale models that date from the late 1920's-early 30's. Will take a few days due to my work shifts, but you will need to tell me how to upload them as I'm not too clever with computers. These planes belonged to Algy Sinclair and sat on a shelf just above the Skybirds that he owned. I managed to get them at auction for a very reasonable price and I usually manage to display a few of them at the annual exhibition that I mentioned in a previuos message. Most of them are beautifully crafted and scaled and he would only have been a teenager when he constructed them ( I believe he was born in 1913).
Have any of you ever heard of HOASKA = Honourable Order of Ancient Skybirds Kit Assemblers? This basically was a series of booklets published by the late David Hughes concerning many aspects of Skybirds and was aimed principally at the old boys who - as youths - made and collected Skybirds and their accessories. There is a wealth of info. in these little booklets, the last of which was printed about ten years ago. As Skybirds will never age, this info. will always be relevant. There is even an article written by my friend George Burton about how I eventually managed to meet someone else who had an interest in Skybirds (ie George himself), and a brief history of the company and my grandfather's life. I have managed to find out a bit more since then, such as the fact that Alfred J. Holladay was in the toy trade all his working life - I found him on the 1891 census where he is 13 years old and working in the ' fancy goods trade'. Thankfully I have a great deal of written material such as photocopies from various magazines and journals, originally done by Algy as preparation for his book.
I have both of the Skybird League books, and the individual copies as well as photocopies of many of the Aeromodeller and Air Review magazines that featured the Skybird League sections. Reading through them is quite fascinating, esp. during the late 1930's when the political situation in Europe became very tense. Many of the youngsters who built Skybirds went on to either work in the aviation industry or became mechanics with the RAF, some going on to be notable pilots.
Some people have suggested doing a website dedicated to Skybirds - this would be a great idea but probably not something that I could accomplish at the moment. For one thing I just wouldn't have the time and also I don't have a clue how to go about it! For the time being I'll get some photos sorted out, and I already have quite a number taken at the previous exhibitions that I've done.
If there is anything else specific that you would like to know, I'll try and do my best to help out.

Graham Bailey