Quintin Brand

Co-Pilot of the first aeroplane to land in Zimbabwe

Brand qualified as a pilot in 1916 and joined the Royal Flying Corps after serving in the South African airforce. He served in the First World War with the RFC in South West Africa and England and is credited with bringing down a German Gotha bomber in the campaign.

After the war he continued his flying career with the Royal Air Force, in 1920 with fellow South African aviator named Pierre van Ryneveld they left England in a converted Vickers Vimy bomber Silver Queen to fly to Cape Town, South Africa and thus became pioneers of the journey and route. The aircraft was wrecked enroute in Egypt but the engines were not wrecked, they were salvaged and fitted into a Silver Queen II another Vimy bomber.

The same aircraft arrived and landed in Bulawayo on the 5th March 1920 and made aviation history as the first aeroplane to land in the country, it crashed the next day on take off. Both men were knighted and Brand retired to farm in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. 

He died on 7 March 1968 in Mutare, Zimbabwe (aged 74).