The plaque reads:
On the outer edge:
"Westminster City Council / The Royal Institute of Navigation".
In the centre:
"Pioneer, Aviator / Sailor and Author / Sir Francis / Chichester KBE / 1901 - 1972 / single-handed / circumnavigator of / the World 1966 - 67 / lived here / 1944 - 1972".
The plaque is to be found on a wall on the northern side of St James's Place and is in excellent condition.
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In 1929 Francis Chichester made the second solo flight to Australia; in 1931, the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea from East to West in his Gypsy Moth aeroplane fitted with floats.
Awarded the Johnson Memorial Trophy for his epic flight, he was the first holder of this coveted award. In flying solo from New Zealand to Japan he made the first solo long distance flight in a sea plane. This flight ended in disaster when he collided with an overhead cable and the plane crashed in Katsuura Harbour. He was dreadfully injured but was nursed back to health by a brilliant doctor and kind, sympathetic Japanese nurses.
Francis Chichester sailed around the world in 1966-7 and had crossed the Atlantic several times prior to that, but he remained the driving force behind his successful business of map publishing and navigation specialists.
The Francis Chichester Map and Guide publishing house started in 1945 - the day after Francis Chichester was demobbed from the Royal Air Force. He was a map designer, publisher, salesman, secretary and office boy rolled into one. His office was one room on the ground floor in the lovely William and Mary house in St. James's Place, London SW1 which his wife and he bought in 1944 during the height of the V1 bomb "doodlebug" raids. His first commercial undertaking in 1945 was turning 15,000 wartime Air Ministry maps into jig-saw puzzles and selling them to the major London stores.
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1967: Sir Francis Chichester sails home
Sir Francis Chichester has arrived in Plymouth tonight in his yacht, Gypsy Moth IV, after completing his epic single-handed voyage around the world.
He crossed the finishing line at 2058, nine months and one day after setting off from the historic port.
Sir Francis is the first man to race around the world solo with only one port of call, Sydney.
About 250,000 well-wishers cheered and sang, welcoming home the 65-year-old adventurer who has inspired the nation this past year.
Thousands of small boats accompanied Gypsy Moth into Plymouth Sound 119 days after it set sail from Sydney, Australia, the only stop in the mammoth journey.
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