The Caterpillar Club

The Irving Air Chute Company Caterpillar Club pin
Source: airborne-sys.com/2018/11/19/the-caterpillar-club/

While recovering from his burns at the Canadian Wing of the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Douglas Hicks would write a letter to Irving Air Chute, formally applying for membership to the Caterpillar Club, a club to which the surviving members of the Harris Crew were fully qualified.  The Irvine Air Chute Company started the Caterpillar Club in 1922, and began awarding certificates and gold caterpillar pins to anyone whose life was saved by parachuting from a disabled aircraft. The caterpillar symbolizes the silk worm, since parachutes were originally made from this material.  According to Irving’s website:

"One evening in 1922, two airmen, Lieutenant Harold R. Harris and Lieutenant Frank B. Tyndal met Leslie Irvin at McCook Field (near the site of Wright-Patterson AFB) to have drinks and share stories about lives saved by parachutes. One of the airmen said “We ought to start a club for guys like us. As time goes by more and more fliers all over the world will owe their lives to your chutes, it should be quite a thing in years to come.” And that was how the Caterpillar Club, an exclusive club for those who had their lives saved by a parachute, was formed."

During World War II, Irvin Air Chute’s factory in Letchworth, England, was producing nearly 1,500 parachutes per week.  By late 1945, there were 34,000 members of the Caterpillar Club.

Three weeks later, Hicks received his acceptance letter, membership card and his caterpillar pin at the hospital.

Irvin Aerospace Limited, as the company is now called, has maintained the club records.  Replacement certificates and/or pins may be requested by immediate family members by contacting:

IrvinGQ (AFPSU)

Blackhorse Road, Letchworth Garden City, Herts, SG6 1HD

Tel: +44 (0) 1462 480433

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[1] www.merkki.com/caterpillarclub.htm

[2] As for the Canadians: The Remarkable Story of the RCAF’s ‘Guinea Pigs’ in World War II by Rita Donovan