Herbert Carmichael Irwin, Date of Birth, Date of Death

Herbert Carmichael Irwin

Olympian runner and military officer

Date of Birth: 26-Jun-1894

Date of Death: 05-Oct-1930

Profession: aircraft pilot, athletics competitor

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Flight Lieutenant Herbert Carmichael "Bird" Irwin, AFC (26 June 1894 – 5 October 1930) was an Irish aviator and Olympic athlete. During World War I, Irwin served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), where he commanded non-rigid airships.
After the Great War, the "tall sensitive Irishman" commanded larger rigid airships, initially for the Royal Air Force (RAF) and later on secondment to the (civilian) Royal Airship Works as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. Both before and after WWI, Irwin also had a successful career as a middle- and long-distance and cross-country runner, and he represented Great Britain at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. Irwin's aviation career culminated in his command of the airship R101, the largest airship in the world at the time; he was killed along with another 47 people when it crashed in northern France on a flight from Britain to India.