Hugo Thomas Massac Buist (1878-1966): An Aviation and Motoring Pioneer of His Time

Few persons in this world can claim that they flew in one of the first airplanes piloted by Wilbur Wright or drove with Charles Stewart Rolls in one of the earliest Rolls-Royce automobiles, nonetheless, a publicist by the name of Hugo Thomas Massac Buist did. He would pen numerous articles on the subjects of flight and automobiles for the London Morning Post and Evening Newspaper for decades. The subject matter of new transportation technologies were keen interests of the publicist and he attended various flight and automobile demonstrations as possible. Buist would accompany Mr. Rolls in a roundtrip drive between Monte Carlo and London in May of 1905. He would also drive with him to Pau in February of 1909 to see the Wright brothers demonstrate their new aircraft. He was at Pau, France in March of 1909 when Orville and Wilbur Wright first flew there. Buist was also the first observer to be driven in the first Rolls-Royce motor car a year earlier. Along with writing newspaper articles Buist would author two books: "Aircraft in the German War, (1914) and "Rolls-Royce Memories" (1926). In 1930 Hugo Buist would be photographed by Howard Coster who photographed most of the leading figures in literature, politics and the arts. The photograph of Hugo Buist has resided in the National Portrait Gallery in London since 1959. Buist eventually retired from writing and lived quietly with his wife in the village of Mullin on the Lizard Peninsula in south Cornwall, England. This then is the narrative of the life and times of Hugo Thomas Massac Buist.