Paranormal record / 1919
A squadron gathers on the tarmac for a group portrait. The men are serious. Every one of them wears a cap. Then the print comes back, and there is one face too many. Behind the fourth airman from the left in the back row, a faint figure peers over his shoulder. He is capless. He is smiling. In 1975, Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard wrote that the squadron recognised him. Freddy Jackson. An air mechanic who had walked into a whirling propeller days before. The photograph, it was said, was taken on the day of his funeral. Researchers have since searched the records for him. He has proved very hard to find.
Victor Goddard was born in Wembley in 1897. In 1916 he flew airship reconnaissance over the Somme and patrolled for submarines in dirigibles. He rose to become Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard. In 1975 he published a book, Flight Towards Reality. Inside was a group portrait of a First World War air squadron, said to date from 1919. Goddard was one of its officers. He is also the only named source for the story it tells.