Frederick Stanley Mockford

Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897 – 1 March 1962) was the originator of the uniform "distress call" MAYDAY. He was a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. When asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency, he crafted the term "MAYDAY" since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France. The term Mayday is derived from the French m’aider. "Venez m'aider" means "come help me."