The Ripping Yarn adventures of a remarkable family will be celebrated tomorrow. TONY HENDERSON reports

ONE brother lived among the eskimos and was pictured diving off an iceberg for fun.

Another brother made aviation history when the seaplane he designed was the first in the British Empire to successfully take off and land.

Their sister continued the family diving tradition and was a Great Britain champion in the sport. She spent years with the Tuareg people in the Sahara, translating the Bible into their language, and was accepted by the menfolk when she perfected the art of jumping on to a galloping camel.

Now the exploits of Arthur, Edward and Daisy Wakefield will be recalled on the shores of Windermere in the Lake District tomorrow. Their great nephew, Sir Humphry Wakefield of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, will be part of an event at the Storrs Hall Hotel on the lake to mark the exact centenary of the first flight at Windermere of Edward’s Waterbird aircraft.

Sir Humphry is patron of the Waterbird project, which involves the building of a working replica of the seaplane, which will be based at Windermere.

Funds are being raised for the creation of an Edward Wakefield memorial seaplane centre and museum at Windermere.

Edward, Arthur and Daisy – and Sir Humphry himself – grew up in the Wakefield family home of The Old House in Kendal in the Lake District, where the family are still landowners through Lake District Estates.

Sir Humphry describes his remarkable great uncles and aunt as “astonishing people.”

He said: “Daisy was marvellous. I have a picture of her at full gallop at the age of six on a pig.”

There are also pictures of Arthur when, at the age of 46, he was part of the first British team to attempt to climb Everest in 1922.

Sir Humphry, who has Arthur’s diary, said: “One of the team coughed up what they thought were two black pebbles. They were in fact his frost-bitten tonsils.”

But tomorrow the focus is on Edward, who fought in the Boer War before turning his talents to seaplane design.

His success was based on his design of the aircraft’s float, which he patented. It impressed Winston Churchill, who was then First Sea Lord and later took a ride on the plane.

Sir Humphry said: “Edward was horrified by the number of early pilots killed in forced landings and reasoned that if a plane could land on water it would help solve the problem.”

Edward later commanded an armed labour battalion at the front in the First World War.