NEWSLETTER 1/2020 ISSN 2207-0400 APRIL 2020 Flying Officer P.M
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ba NEWSLETTER 1/2020 ISSN 2207-0400 APRIL 2020 Flying Officer P.M. Pitt on the morning of Thursday 11 Duntroon, Aeroplanes and February 1926 was attempting to land at the Northbourne Accidents Aviation Ground, now part of the suburb Dickson, to take part in a territory aerial survey. His crew member and camera Richard (R.J.) Lamb (1966) operator, AC William Callander, was also killed. The Dickson landing ground was on land leased from the The 1925 RMC Journal has a page evoking technology in Shumacks and became operational in March 1924. It transition with a military aeroplane contrasted to a cavalry remained open until November 1926 when a lease was horse. The RAAF was formed in 1921 and between 1923 and obtained on Campbell land near Majura Lane. In 1928 and 1930 the RMC provided a significant number of its graduates 1929, two RAAF aircraft were actually attached to the RMC to the RAAF. [Thirty eight RMC graduates attended flying Duntroon for training purposes out of the Majura landing training at Point Cook. A further eight staff cadets, selected ground. The new and safer site is now the western half of the by the RAAF, spent two or three years at the RMC and then present Canberra Airport. went to Point Cook for flying courses in 1931. Not all who This plaque is on the entrance wall of the present Dickson went to Point Cook gained their wings but most who did Library and the crash site is close to the corner of Antill and remained with the RAAF. Ed] Cowper streets (plaque date shown is incorrect). The RMC Journal December 1926 has Pitt’s obituary. Two RMC graduates, as flying officers, were killed in two air accidents a year apart in 1926 and 1927 and were the first two air deaths in the Federal Territory. Both had graduated from the RMC in 1920 but in 1925 both transferred to the RAAF. 1 The second death, that of Flying Officer F.C. Ewen, occurred at a Royal review flypast during the opening ceremony of Parliament House by the Duke of York on 9 May 1927. The review consisted of 2,000 ground troops and a number of aircraft. The Canberra Times of Friday 13 May reported ...... ...Tragedy again clouded a day of celebration and rejoicing—a day that of all others should have passed free of blemish. During the Royal review on Monday afternoon Flying Officer Francis Charles Ewen, piloting a small one-man plane known as a Scout Experimenter, lost control and crashed to earth. Horrified spectators hurrying to the scene of the disaster found Ewen still alive, but terribly injured, in the debris of the wrecked plane. The tragedy occurred at about 3.20 pm and the scene was the small hill fronting Parliament House, about three-quarters of a mile distant, and quite close to the YWCA marquee. A number of people were in the immediate vicinity at the time and as the machine came hurtling earthwards, they scattered in panic. The crash was tremendous. A cloud of dust and a sheet of bluish flame rose in the air. The machine was a total wreck. Ewen was quickly carried to the Telopea Park School emergency hospital, but there was no hope for his recovery and he died at about 7 o’clock in the evening. Ewen’s obituary was carried in the Journal December 1927. The actual crash site is more than likely to have been Cork Hill, a prominence or mound almost directly in front of Parliament House near the Molonglo and close to the current Lake’s edge, but removed in 1962. A much less likely source has the crash site as Rottenbury hill near St Marks, Blackall St Barton. The accident was kept as low-key news presumably to not detract from the importance and gravity of the royal occasion. The next day the Duke, as the King’s representative, presented the new Kings Colours at a formal parade at the RMC Duntroon. Duntroon cadets and staff featured prominently at both the Pitt and Ewen military funerals. Ewen’s parents decided to allow him to be buried at St John’s Churchyard Canberra1 given his RMC and RAAF ties, proximity to the crash site and the fact that he was from New Zealand. Pitt and Ewen were classmates at Duntroon and graduated together in 1920. Both were good rugby players and both played for the RMC first XV as this rare team photo from the 1920 Journal shows. The Ewen air accident at the Royal Review is recalled in the following National Archives photo (NAA 3560,3049 Mildenhall collection) of the flypast which was apparently taken from York Park looking south. 1 Maintenance of the Ewen grave is covered in the RMC Graves graves in St John’s Churchyard and four more in Woden Cemetery covered Maintenance Policy and is funded by the Duntroon Society—there are four by this policy. 2 In 2010 a memorial plaque was erected in St John’s churchyard for A.C. Callander who was buried very close to Ewen in an unmarked grave (some of the plaque details are not correct). 3 Squadron RAAF Association has been most appreciative for the digitisation of the RMC Journals. This has enabled Association members and researchers to look more closely at two of their early colleagues and obtain photographs and details not previously available. Pitt’s family had also decided to allow his burial near his ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ place of death, despite his north Queensland ties. He is buried Richard Lamb graduated from the RMC in 1966 into the in the Catholic section of Queanbeyan cemetery, there being Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps and served until end no Catholic burial ground in the Territory at that time. It is 1971 when he was recruited by Commonwealth Treasury unfortunate that, to date, Flying Officer Pitt as the first air having obtained an advanced economics degree from accident death in the ACT has no grave memorial. As this University Western Australia. Later he received a post photo shows, his grassed grave in the centre is completely graduate degree in business administration from Swinburne unmarked and flanked by two headstoned graves. University. As an energy economist, he spent some years with OECD (IEA) Paris in energy policy development and modelling including several OECD publications. Prior to that he was in the Department of Defence. After returning to Australia in 1984 he joined DFAT undertaking numerous overseas missions and trade negotiations including nuclear safeguards. He was also part of Department of Industry and Resources in international R&D. He became an economic consultant in 2000. More recently he has focused on Australian history, has published a book Eighteenth Century Mariners and Merchants in 2013 and publishes blogs on early Australia. He has been a volunteer at the National Library Australia since 2006 and with NLA Trove in 2019 managed The RAAF has however recently remembered Pitt (and Ewen the digitisation of RMC Journals from 1913 to 1968. and Callander) in the unveiling on 11 February 2016 of a 3 Squadron Memorial Cairn and plaque in the RAAF Memorial ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Grove, Federal Highway. This took place to the day and hour on the 90th anniversary of Pitt’s death along with an F/A-18 The Way of the Horse—Duntroon flypast. Richard (R.J.) Lamb (1966) Now almost forgotten, the horse was a central part of cadets’ lives for over three decades after the RMC commenced in 1911. Some cadets may have entered the College already knowing horses but most would not. All graduated with adequate riding skills, some better than others. They would have gained a solid appreciation of cavalry and mounted infantry, especially those destined for horse units in India as well as Australia. Although mechanisation was underway during the 1920s, the RMC curriculum continued to give significant time to Cavalry and Riding as two separate subjects, especially third and second classes. By 1939 the writing was on the wall at Duntroon although it was only in 1941 that Cavalry as a Connections between the two air fatalities extend to a subject was withdrawn. National Archives photo (NAA 3560, 440 Mildenhall The fifty-four RMC Journals from 1913 to 1968, all now collection) captioned as the Ewen 1927 crash site. It is completely digitised and accessible on NLA Trove, give virtually certain, however, that this was the site of the Pitt some detailed insights as to how important the horse was. For accident at Dickson the year before. The fence line and example, these images from the 1925 Journal indicate the ploughed paddock close behind, probably Shumack land, and uncertainties that lay ahead by featuring both old ways—the the shape of Black Mountain in the background seem to horse—and the new—motor and air. confirm this. 3 could not exceed trotting pace. Legge, a horse squadron commander in the Boer War and with three sons of his own, saw things differently. Along with a more relaxed style with cadets, he brought in the annual cavalry trek which stayed on as a tradition until 1939. Within a few months of his arrival, the annual November 1920 infantry exercise became a horse trek for senior classes. The next year’s cavalry exercise—November 1921 and nearly a century ago—was a much more adventurous affair and certainly reinforced the horse tradition. After Legge’s abrupt departure in July 1922, the RMC Journal December 1922 says, “... the General will be remembered for his interest in geology and the sporting way in which he organised and led the First Class expedition to Bimberi in 1921 with the object of giving them experience in riding in rough country.