When the first issue of Aeroplane Monthly appeared, its ‘Preservation Profile’ subject was the Caudron G.III in the RAF Museum. That First World War aircraft was one of many saved by Dick Nash, without whom the RAFM would look very different
“Tall, balding, careful with money, quietly spoken, Dick appeared almost shy”. That was how the late Bill Boddy, doyen of veteran motoring, described Dick Nash in a Motor Sport magazine retrospective, going on to say, “But behind the wheel of his beloved racing cars, his nature altered”. What he was like at the controls of his historic aeroplanes, Boddy did not mention. But such machines were the other abiding interest of this pioneering preservationist.
In many ways, the name of Richard Grainger Jeune Nash deserves to be as widely known as that of Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth. Through saving what were often dismissively called ‘old crocks’ of the vehicular and aeronautical varieties, their aims were very similar. They were direct contemporaries — Shuttleworth was born in 1909, Nash in 1910 — and shared a highly competitive spirit. Perhaps most importantly, their legacies have been considerable. Shuttleworth’s we all know about. Nash’s is less obvious, but examine the histories of many of…
