Charles J. Biddle: Pilot, Sportsman, Lawyer

This exhibition highlights the military service and recreational pursuits of Charles J. Biddle (1890-1972), one of the last fulltime residents of the Big House at Andalusia.

In spring 1917, having just turned 27, Charles left a promising law career in Philadelphia to join the French Air Service and fight in World War I. He first flew with the Lafayette Flying Corps, Escadrille 73, known as Les Cigognes, or The Storks. In January 1918 he transferred to the United States Air Service, rising to the rank of major. He earned ace pilot status, shooting down eight German airplanes before his honorable discharge in 1919, and received military honors from France, Belgium, and the US.

Back home, Charles married Katharine Legendre Biddle (1892-1973) in 1923. They raised three boys at Andalusia: Henry Keep Jr. (1917-1983), from her first marriage to an Army captain who died in the war, Charles (1925-2003), and James (1929-2005). Returning to law at the firm of Drinker, Biddle, and Reath, Charles took on several high-profile cases—including suing the US Government on behalf of widows of engineers killed in a fire aboard an Air Force B-29, and representing Pennsylvania with William T. Coleman Jr. in the fight to integrate Girard College.

Throughout his life, Charles spent his free time immersed in the nature and wildlife of Andalusia. He began hunting on the property when he was just ten. Later, he and Katharine took hunting and fishing trips to Texas, Florida, and Scotland. They spent time at a marshland reserve in Salem, New Jersey, too, which has since been donated to the state as part of a wildlife sanctuary. Charles also resisted local development that threatened Andalusia’s natural beauty and planted many of the tulip poplars that tower over the grounds today.