Cecil (left) and Eric Pashley beside their Henry Farman biplane. Older brother Cecil obtained Royal Aero Club pilot's licence No 106 in July 1911, Eric getting his “ticket” two months later on a Sommer biplane. The pair started a flying school at Shoreham in 1913. Eric was killed in France in March 1917, while serving with the RFC.

The Pashleys’ Henry Farman biplane at Shoreham in 1914, with a Green-engined Avro Type D in the background. The race for the Brighton Cup on July 11 that year included two heats of four laps each and a final of six laps of the 1 3/4-miie (2-8km) course, the winner receiving not only the cup but also ?70, courtesy of Shell.

With Hall’s Avro 500 in the foreground, aircraft line up for the start of the second heat of the Brighton Cup on July 11. Beyond the Avro is the Pashley racer, Eric Pashley being given a 1min start ahead of Hall, and at the far end is G.J. Lusted’s Henry Farman (2 3/4min head start). Pashley won the heat easily, beating Hall by more than a minute.

The Pashley brothers’ specially designed racing biplane, with Eric in the front, beside the restaurant at Shoreham in 1914. Described by Flight as “an extremely neat job”, the aircraft was completed on the Sunday before the Brighton Cup race on Saturday July 11, 1914, with the engine fitted less than 72hr before the race was due to start.

The Pashleys’ racing biplane, with its non-lifting tail and distinctive cut-outs on the trailing edges of the upper and lower wing centre sections, was fitted with a 50 h.p. Gnome rotary engine which enabled the carriage of two passengers. Ailerons were fitted to the upper and lower wings, which were of short span and narrow gap.

Originally from Sheffield (where he reportedly flew two chimpanzees over Redmires racecourse in his Bleriot in November 1912), John Laurence Hall gained aviator’s certificate No 291 on September 17, 1912. Here he poses beside the Avro 500 in which he participated against the Pashleys in the race for the 1914 Brighton Cup.