Geoffrey "de Neville" (d. c. 1242) inherited the estates of his mother's family as well as his father's, and adopted his mother's surname, but retained his paternal arms of Gules, a saltire argent. [10] In Norman-ruled England, a Norman surname was more prestigious and socially advantageous [11] than his original English surname FitzRobert. I am certain that that day will remain in my memory until I die - the contrast of the excitement of seeing this futuristic aircraft streak overhead and then to watch it coming towards us and to see bits start to fly off and know that something was wrong. Young, Charles Robert (1996). The Making of the Neville Family in England, 1166-1400. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85115-668-2.

There was a short break in the display, then Neville Duke did a supersonic dive in a prototype Hawker Hunter. There was a deadly silence from the crowd, who were very nervous about this being repeated. The ceremony and plaque was organised by Causeway resident Antony Fletcher, who said: “This is a very special occasion because Neville Duke was first of all a very brave fighter pilot, responsible for shooting down 28 enemy GA-F,note only two wing mounted guns with the British radio mast Tomahawk Mk II B of 112 Squadron, that crash landed after a mission. 112 Sqn RAF/Pilot F.O. Duke - AK402 GA-F was a Tomahawk IIB (P-40C) flown by Flying Officer Neville Duke of 112 Sqn RAF in November 1941. While flying this aircraft, Duke was credited with three kills in nine days. (a CR.42, a Me 109F, and a G.50) On 30 November, the aircraft was lost when Duke was shot down by Otto Schultz of JG27. Duke bellied in and survived the crash, and became the Allies' highest scoring ace in the Mediterranean theatre. After the war, Duke (DSO, OBE, DFC with two bars, AFC, Czech Military Cross) flew as a test pilot and at one time held the world speed record. In Sept 1952 I attended Farnborough Air show with my father. As a keen aviation photographer with a 100mm lens, I always took a position at the fence line and therefore had to get there early. The Latimer branch of the family had also died out in 1577, but the Bergavenny line endured. After the death of Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny in 1587, his daughter Mary Nevill(e) fought a legal battle to be recognised as heiress to all the remaining Neville inheritance. Ultimately, however, these lands were split between her and her first cousin Edward Nevill, who inherited the baronial title. Her son Francis Fane inherited through her the very old title of Baron le Despencer; to him, the Neville family's senior title of Earl of Westmorland was recreated, and remains with his male-line descendants.For his great contribution to the exploration of supersonic flight and his achievements at Hawkers, Duke was appointed OBE. Planché: The Pursuivant of Arms: "in consequence of the great possessions of his mother, assumed the name of her family, but retained the arms of his own"

He took up freelance flying and consultancy work, then in 1960 formed Duke Aviation and also became personal pilot to Sir George Dowty. After selling his company in 1982, Duke concentrated on test flying lighter aircraft and on consultancy, forming a fruitful and enduring relationship with Brooklands Aerospace Group. These activities he combined with his other great passion, sailing. His second child and heiress was Isabel de Neville (d.1248/54), [9] who married Robert FitzMaldred (1170/4-1242/8). I wonder now if it was that British stoicsm which had been heightened during the war that allowed the show to continue about an hour later despite the carnage on the ground. Duke's aircraft was the Hawker Hunter jet fighter. He took the machine from its trials, as the Hawker P1067 in July 1951, to a world speed record of 727.6mph in September 1953, achieved in the impeccably English setting of Bognor, Littlehampton and Worthing, just three months after the Coronation.

Created by writ in the Peerage of England in 1295 when Ralph Neville was summoned to Parliament. Attainted in 1571. In the space of three months fighting over Tunisia Duke destroyed 12 enemy fighters and two bombers, and in March he was awarded an immediate DSO. Käsmann, Ferdinand C.W. Die schnellsten Jets der Welt (The Fastest Jets in the World) (in German). Berlin: Aviatic-Verlag GmbH, 1999. ISBN 3-925505-26-1.

A spokesman for Tangmere Military Aviation Museum in West Sussex, where Sqn Ldr Duke was honorary president, described him as a true gentleman. Duke was posted to the Fighter Test Squadron at Boscombe Down and began research at high Mach numbers and high altitude up to 50,000 ft in Meteors.He explored the extreme edges of the high-speed performance of the aircraft and the effect of compressibility at speeds approaching the speed of sound.For his pioneering work he was awarded an AFC. On the train home it dawned on me just how covered I was in the blood of those who died or were injured. The Swift flopped, except as a star of David Lean's 1952 feature film about intrepid test pilots, the Terence Rattigan-scripted The Sound Barrier. The Hunter did not flop, and what set the seal on its success, and Duke's fame, was his performance at the 1952 Farnborough show. Downing two Fw 190s of Schlachtgeschwader 4 in May, Duke scored his final kills on 7 September 1944, becoming the Mediterranean Theatre's top Allied fighter ace at the age of 22. In 486 sorties and some 712 operational hours, he claimed 27 outright victories and two shared, one probable, six damaged and two shared destroyed on the ground. [3] Test pilot [ edit ]Over the next few weeks Duke claimed five further victories and was awarded a second Bar to his DFC for "displaying the highest standard of skill, gallantry and determination". My father and uncle would always go the airshows and stand on the hill where the majority of the casualties were. Jet aircraft incarnated the future. Landing in Prague that June in a Meteor, Duke was met, and mobbed, by a 150,000-strong crowd. In 1947, he married Gwendoline Fellows. Duke received many national and international honours in addition to his gallantry awards. He was awarded the Royal Aero Club's Gold Medal, and in 1993 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. In 2002 he was the recipient of the Air League's Jeffrey Quill Medal. In the same year, Duke received the rarely awarded and internationally prestigious Award of Honour from the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators for "his unique and incomparable record".

Duke was awarded the Air Force Cross recognising his test flying from 1947 to 1948 at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down, where he flew research flights to explore aircraft performance at high Mach numbers and high altitudes. Duke resigned from the RAF in August 1948, joining the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, flying Spitfires and Meteors from Biggin Hill. He was CO of No.615 Squadron in 1950 and 1951, whose honorary air commodore was Winston Churchill. Duke with Churchill. When Duke delivered a batch of Hawker Furies to the new Royal Pakistan Air Force he established records from London to Rome, to Cairo and to Karachi.By the end of 1949 Hawkers had developed a series of experimental jet fighters that led to the Seahawk naval fighter and another, the P 1067, which became the elegant and world-beating Hunter fighter, an aircraft with which the name Duke became synonymous.A year after his display at the 1952 Farnborough Air Show, on September 7 1953 he established a world airspeed record at sea level of 727.63 mph flying an all-red Hunter (WB 188). Squadron Leader Neville Duke, who died on April 7 2007 aged 85, had a remarkable record as a fighter pilot during the Second World War; he was decorated for gallantry six times and went on to become one of the world's foremost test pilots. Duke became one of the vice presidents of the Eagle Club, formed by the Eagle magazine, in 1950, and many schoolboys from that era came to know of Duke through this association. It is speculated that " Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future" may have been inspired by Duke's achievements. [6] In 1069, William the Conqueror granted the Lordship of Middleham to his Breton cousin Alan Rufus, son of Odo, who built a wooden motte-and-bailey castle above the town. It has been dubbed the "Windsor of the North". By the time of the 1086 Domesday Book, Alan had passed the castle to his brother Ribald.There was one thing I do recall Neville saying about the repainting of the squadron in the desert and that was that they had to get special permission to repaint on top and under because the colors were wrong for the desert even the colour for the sky looking up at flying aircraft and made them easy to see and it took some time because the ground staff had a fulltime job repairing aircraft. I always laughed about that because the Sharks teeth were enough to attract anything. After the war he became a celebrated test pilot for Hawker, flying the Hunter fighter to the world speed record. He also flew the Harrier. It was a time when the Eagle comic's Dan Dare Pilot of the Future - RAF fantasia relocated in outer space - fuelled those New Elizabethan dreams of sound barriers, supersonic flight, new empires and interplanetary travel. Duke even showed up, dressed for the part, in the Eagle's "Heroes Of Today" slot. In 1951, the white-overalled pilot had dispensed with old-style leather flying caps for what became part of his trademark, an American white helmet, born of gridiron football, pre-astronaut 1950s modern and soon adopted by teenage ton-up motorcyclists on their Tiger 110s.