Tom Campbell Black - The Schlesinger Race

The Schlesinger Race

In the same year, Tom Black had entered in an air race from England to Johannesburg, South Africa, "The Schlesinger Race", flown from 29 September 1936 to 1 October 1936, the race offered a prize of £10,000 to the winner. Campbell Black was one of the three favourites to win the race, all flying Percival E2H Mew Gulls.

On 19 September 1936, while preparing for the race, Tom Campbell Black was killed at the U.K's Liverpool, Speke Airport, in a ground collision with another aircraft. A RAF bomber that had landed ran into Black's Mew Gull as he taxiied out for take off. Black was reputed to have been looking down at his map at the time. The propeller of the large biplane tore through the side of Black's cockpit, striking and mortally wounding him in the chest and shoulder. He died on the way to hospital. He left a widow, the English actress Florence Desmond, whom he had married in 1935.

The winners of the "Schlesinger Race" were C. W. A. Scott, (Black's co-pilot in the 1934 MacRoberts Race) and Giles Guthrie.