Frederick Nicholas Slingsby was born in Cambridge on 6th November 1894, of Yorkshire parentage, a member of the family of Yorkshire Slingsbys, one of the oldest families in England. He served in the Royal Flying Corps from March 1914 to February 1920, and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery during aerial combat, 'when as a flight sergeant acting as a gunner observer on photographic reconnaissance over hostile territory, after his pilot had been killed, he regained contraol of the aircraft and flew the machine back to the British Lines'.
He has been a designer, manufacturer and pilot of glider aircraft since 1930; his first sailplane was awarded the Wakefield Trophy in 1932. From 1930 to 1934 he made his gliders in his furniture works at Scraborough. He later transferred to Kirbymoorside, and founded the company of Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd in 1938 with major J.E.D. Shaw, J.P., T.D., as chairman, and himself as managing director and chief designer.
He was elected an Associated Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1943, and a Fellow in 1958.
Fred Slingsby was awarded the Paul Dissandier Trophy by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in 1958, and the British Silver Medal for Aeronautics, for 'practical achievements in the design and construction of sailplanes', by the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1962.
Source: The Gliding Book.pdf by John Furlong et al, Page 65 [Chapter 6 Making Gliders by F.N. Slingsby]