An Unconventional Route

From pounding the beat to ferrying ostriches, Jeremy Tweedie’s path into aviation and the 747 has taken a few interesting turns

- Colin Goodwin

Captain Jeremy Tweedie sits in his Boeing 747 en route to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates cruising comfortably at 35,000ft. Behind him are several hundred passengers, a dozen or so lucky enough to enjoy the privileges of first class travel. A better bottle of wine and a better class of nosebag than those back in economy.

Eighty-four years earlier Captain Patrick Tweedie was also flying to Sharjah. His Handley Page HP.42 flew somewhat lower than FL340 and made its way considerably more slowly than the Boeing. There were no first class passengers behind him because all passengers who flew on the Imperial Airways service to the East were treated to a level of luxury that no modern airline could hope to match.

Once they’d landed at Sharjah, Tweedie, his crew and passengers would have rested the night at Al Mahatta Fort before continuing their journey the next day. If you have read Alexander Frater’s beautifully written book Beyond The Blue Horizon, which retraces the old Imperial Airways route eastwards (and you should have, because it is probably one of the best books on aviation ever written), you will be familiar with places like Al Mahatta. You will also have met Captain Patrick Tweedie because, as the last living Imperial Airways captain, Frater interviewed him for his book.

I came across Tweedie’s grandson Jeremy purely by chance. I was being chauffeured to a motoring do and got chatting with my driver who, as is often the case, was ex-police. After a while I got onto the subject of flying. “Ah,” said my driver, “I served with a bloke who left the police and became an airline pilot. He’s interesting because his grandfather flew those old biplane airliners.” Up flashed my story light.