A great wave of fundraising 'patriotic' associations followed in the wake of Great Britain's
declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914 at home but also right across the empire. The
most successful public campaign of all was launched in London at the beginning of 1915. Known
as the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla the scheme aimed to attract contributions towards aircraft
production costs from throughout the British Empire. Any country locality or community that
provided sufficient funds for an entire 'aeroplane' could have it named after them. It was
promised that when the machine crashed or was shot down the name would be transferred to a new
one of the same type. Margaret Hall examines the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla as a facet of
imperial history. She analyzes the fundraising efforts in Canada and Newfoundland the Zanzibar
Protectorate Fiji Mauritius and the Caribbean Hong Kong the Malay states and Straits
Settlements West Africa especially Gold Coast Southern Rhodesia Basutoland Swaziland and
the Union of South Africa the Indian empire and Burma (British subjects in) independent
Abyssinia and Siam in the Shanghai International Settlement and the British community of
Argentina Australia and New Zealand. This remarkable and detailed book discusses the
propaganda and counter-subversion usages of the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla-and what the support
for the imperial war effort reveals about contemporary national and regional identities and
aspirations.
