Ross and Keith Smith

Several photos of great historical interest have just come to light in an album of photographs, scanned for posterity by Georges River Libraries’ Local Studies team.  The photos were taken by Mr R Snoor of Oatley, and show the momentous arrival at Mascot aerodrome of the aeroplane flown by Ross and Keith Smith from England to Australia in 1920.

In 1919, the Australian Government offered a prize of £10,000 to the first Australian to fly in a British aircraft from Great Britain to Australia, and this sparked the Great Air Race. Captain Ross Macpherson Smith, one of the most highly-decorated officers of the AFC and his brother Lt Keith Macpherson Smith, along with engineer-mechanics Sgt James Mallett Bennett and Sgt Walter Shiers took on the challenge. 

They departed from Hounslow Heath aerodrome on 12 November 1919. Stops along the way were at Cairo, Basra, Delhi, Singora, Sourabaya and Timor. After many adventures, they landed at Darwin on 10 December 1919 and claimed the prize.

Their aeroplane, a twin-engined Vickers Vimy bomber, covered 18,250 kilometres in a little over 135 hours’ flying time.  For their feat, Ross and Keith Smith were immediately knighted, and the two engineers were given honorary commissions.  From Darwin, the aeroplane made a more leisurely tour down the east of the continent towards Sydney.  Publicity increased public excitement, and finally on 14 February 1920, their arrival was imminent.

A heroes’ welcome was arranged. The programme for the day was given in all the Sydney newspapers.  The plane was expected at Mascot at 11am.  It would fly in through Sydney Heads at an altitude where as many people as possible would have a chance of seeing it.  Special permission was given to returned members of the AIF who wished to take part in the welcome to wear the uniform of their regiment or corps.  VIP access would be given to officers and men of the AFC, and the 1^st Light Horse, with whom Sir Ross Smith had served at the battle of Romani.  On arrival, the aviators would be driven to a civic reception at Town Hall.  In the afternoon, they would take off and fly over Ashfield and Hurstville in connection with patriotic functions there.

(The Hurstville function referred to was a major fund-raising carnival for the construction of the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall.  In the event, the airmen were otherwise detained, but the crowd was entertained by another aviator, Nigel Love, who performed looping loops in his Avro.  Love’s plane had accompanied the Vimy on the last leg of its journey.  The carnival was a great success.)

Through Sydney Heads came the aeroplane.  “With the grace of a majestic albatross”, thought the Sun.  “Like a great bronze eagle”, thought the Evening News.  Crowds filled every vantage-point, and men leaned precariously out of office-windows for a glimpse.

The plane landed at Mascot, and the big crowd impulsively surged forward.  “Sir Keith Smith jumped into view and waved the people back from the giant whirring propeller blades.  They did not hear him and approached dangerously close.  However, all ended well,” noted the Evening News reporter, whose story filled that afternoon’s edition.  “Then he beheld two arms stretched towards him and a loving face he knew so well – ‘Mother,’ he said softly.”

Cheered by the men of the 1^st Light Horse, and fanfared by the brass band playing Advance Australia Fair, the four airmen were taken off to Town Hall to endure speechifying and hero-worship.  More to their taste would have been the gala performance put on at the Tivoli in their honour a couple of nights later.

The Smiths’ flight blazed the trail for commercial and passenger flight to Australia.  The aeroplane which performed the feat can still be seen to this day, in a museum at Adelaide Airport.  If you want to know more, Michael Molkentin’s Anzac and Aviator (2019) is a good recent biography of Sir Ross Smith.