Sir Charles Kingsford Smith MC, AFC

Charles Kingsford Smith, portrait — Charles Kingsford Smith. Photo by Keystone View Company, 1930. Image: Keystone View Company
© National Library of Australia.

Readers note: This is an excerpt from the 200 Treasures exhibition catalogue, developed in 2017. This content was written as a brief biography on why this person was included in the exhibition.

1897 - 1935

Pioneer aviator Charles Kingsford Smith was born in Brisbane in 1897. On his eighteenth birthday, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and served in World War I at Gallipoli as a sapper, and as a dispatch rider in Egypt and France. He transferred to the Australian Flying Corps, and within a month had proved himself a flying ace, bringing down four enemy planes before being brought down and wounded himself. Awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry, he then became a flying instructor.

After the war, Kingsford Smith piloted joy flights and joined an aerial stunt team before setting up an aerial transport service in Australia. To generate publicity, he and partner Charles Ulm pushed the boundaries of aviation, but not without casualties.

Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm on arrival at Auckland, New Zealand, September 1928. Image: Auckland Weekly News
© National Library of Australia

In 1927, they completed a record-breaking around-Australia circuit in 10 days. The next year they flew a three-engine Fokker plane, Southern Cross, from California to Brisbane in just over 83 hours. Kingsford Smith was awarded the Air Force Cross for this feat. After setting more flight records in Australia, he and Ulm flew from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand.

In 1929, Kingsford Smith undertook his most ambitious flight yet when he flew from Australia to England in 12 days, 18 hours, a feat that made him world famous. This achievement, though, was seriously marred by the death of two of his crew. He continued to smash records, flying solo from England to Darwin in 1931. He was knighted for services to aviation in 1932.

Kingsford Smith at the microphone, next to Sir Fred Stewart, after his flight from England to Australia in Southern Cross Junior, G-ABCF, October 1930. Image: Sydney Morning Herald and Sydney Mail
© National Library of Australia

In 1934, he made the first west–east flight across the Pacific. In November 1935, Kingsford Smith took off on the second leg of another flight from England to Australia with John ‘JT’ Pethybridge. The plane and pilots were never seen again. Australia’s aviation hero is believed to have crashed into the sea near Myanmar.