Aviation Pioneer, Politician. He received notoriety for being a Member of the British Parliament, his scandalous libel trial during World War I, and for his pioneer aviation inventions. Born the son of an iron company supervisor, who handled a blast furnace, he left his home near London going to South Africa at the age of thirteen years old. He worked as a common laborer until he was old enough to enlist in the mounted police force. He successfully entered the sport of boxing. At eighteen he joined the British Army fighting in the Second Boer War, wounded twice, and being discharged in 1901. In 1903 he returned to England to open an automobile garage before returning to South Africa to trade horses and be a gun-runner and eventually returning to England with money enough to start a business. His first aviation adventure was in 1908 when he opened an aerdrome in South Essex to attempt to build airplanes, but the adventure failed due to the lack of funds. His plane designs were beautiful, yet not the safest. In 1900 as an early advocate of airplanes, he founded an aeronautical periodical called the “Aerocraft,” but that failed too. He lobbied Parliament to start a branch of the arm forces for airplanes, but he was ignored. At this point, he earned a law degree while buying and selling steam-powered yachts. In 1913 his interest turned back to aviation founding the company Pemberton-Billing Ltd. This business was funded by a bet with aircraft manufacturer Frederick Handley Pagel that he could pass the pilot's license exam within a day of first flying a plane; he won the bet and with the winnings opened his own aircraft company. His pilot's license was dated September 17, 1913 and the next month submitted applications for patents for various prototype airplanes. In 1914 with the start of World War I, he served in the Royal Navel Air Service at the rank of lieutenant. By 1915, he was not please with the way the military was handling the air war, thus resigned his commission. The Air Department of the Admiralty awarded him a contract in May of 1916 to built 34 airplanes with none seeing service in the war. Heading for a career in politics in 1916, he sold his company. His company's name was changed to Supermarine, Lt, which later successfully built the Spitfire, the iconic British single-seat fighter aircraft used in World War II. On his second attempt as an Independent candidate, he won the 1916 election as a member of Parliament. Known as “Minister for Air,” he helped to lead in the formation of the Royal Air Force. He was unique, flamboyant, and an outspoken man being over six-foot tall with a Cockney accent, using a monocle for his right eye, graying hair parted down the middle, never wearing a tie but shirts with large pointed collars held together with an RAF brooch, and driving a bright yellow Rolls Royce coupe. Besides airplanes, his second focus was “the enemy within” England. Even though his first wife was half German, he wanted to deport all with German ancestry as well as those of his other prejudices such as Jewish and Communists. Supporting fighting the war with airplanes with air raiding Germany, he published in 1917 “Air War and How to Wage It.” After purchasing and editing the weekly newspaper, the “Imperialist,” he wrote political articles about the Germans and the British who were sabotaging the war effort. In January of 1918 he claimed he knew about a Black Book, which contained “47,000 names of British homosexuals, who were being blackmailed by German secret service.” Other well-to-do citizen's names were listed in the book for various reasons, such as being a member of a secret German society in England called “The Unseen Hand,” that was deliberately trying to stop the British successfully fighting the Germans. Although many stories about the book were published ruining the reputations of people in authority, along with actors and artists, it was the homophobic cover story in his journal “Vigilante” called “The Cult of the Clitoris” of February 16, 1918 that would land him in court being charged with criminal libel after naming Margot Asquith, the wife of former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, as being listed in the Black Book. Representing himself as his lawyer, he brought forth his star witness stating both Mr. and Mrs. Asquith's names were listed in the book, along with King Edward VII's mistress, Freddie Keppel and the presiding judge in the courtroom, Chief Justice Charles Darling. The general public supported his agenda after hearing this witness. Although he was acquitted in an hour and a half by a jury of all charges of libel on June 4, 1918, in 1920 his star witness was convicted of bigamy and confessing she had lied at the trial, and another witness was found guilty of criminal libel after publishing a pamphlet disgracing Winston Churchill. When the public learned of this, he did admit that he never saw the book, but was relying on those killed in World War I who had seen the book. In fact, there was never a Black Book, no pro-German conspiracy, and if anyone had an alternate life style, it had no bearing on the nation's safety during the war. Although he had been re-elected, he decided to resign in 1921 ending his political career. He accepted the management of the estate of Manor of Northstead. In 1922 he patented his long-playing record but this invention failed because the cost of making the disc was very high. In 1923 his wife of twenty years died and by 1937 he was remarried to Elsie Veronic Farmer. He and his first wife had a son and a daughter, who were amazed by their father's work, yet for a time were placed in Kent's Children's Home. In 1927 he wrote the play “High Treason,” which was made into a silent movie and later a “talkie” movie, with both being unsuccessful. In 1933 he designed the miniature LeCoulter Compass camera, and in 1948 he designed the “Phantom” camera, which could be used by spies. With the breaking of World War II, he attempted to be re-elected to Parliament four times but was defeated each time. At this point, he withdrew from the public eye living on his motor yacht, the “Commodore,” and at his death in 1948, there was no obituary in the newspaper for him. Award-winning author Pat Barker set her World War I trilogy in the backdrop of Billing's libel case. Her novels were in 1991 “Regeneration,” 1993 “The Eye in the Door” and in 1995 “The Ghost Road.