Category: Richmond NSW

Archibald Bell, Belmont, North Richmond, Biography, Colo Shire Family History Group, Colonial history, Flying Scotsman, Genealogy, Guy Lambton Menzies, Hawkesbury, Hawkesbury Family History Group, History and heritage, National Library of Australia, National Trust Hawkesbury, Norman 'Wizard' Smith, Philip Charley, RAAF, Richmond NSW, Royal Australian Air Force, Southern Cross Junior, St Matthew's Anglican Church Windsor, Stephen Lambton, William Sims Bell, Writers to the Signet1 Comment

Guy Lambton Menzies: courageous aviator with family links to pioneers of the Hawkesbury

Carol

  Guy Lambton Menzies, 20 August 1909 – 1 November 1940, photograph c1939, courtesy Canada Bay Library. In early 1931, Guy Lambton Menzies took off from Mascot in an Avro-Avian aircraft (the Southern Cross Junior), flew solo across the Tasman Sea and landed upside down in a swamp near Hokitika on the South Island of New Zealand in the record time of eleven hours and forty-five minutes. Just 21 years of age, the intrepid aviator was an experienced pilot with more than 800 hours in his logbook. When I first started my research on Guy Lambton Menzies I had no … Continue reading Guy Lambton Menzies: courageous aviator with family links to pioneers of the Hawkesbury

Anzac, Colo Shire Family History Group, Gallipoli, Hawkesbury, Hawkesbury Agricultural College, History and heritage, Richmond NSW, The Great War, Western Sydney UniversityLeave a comment

Returned soldiers at Hawkesbury Agricultural College

Carol

By Anzac Day 1918, Hawkesbury Agricultural College had provided agricultural training for sixty returned soldiers in the fields of horticulture, pig raising, poultry farming and dairying. Many of the men had permanent injuries and were selected under an arrangement between the State War Council and Department of Agriculture. It was reported in the HAC Annual Report in 1916 that ‘Fifteen soldiers have taken advantage of this…many of them are maimed and injured to such a degree that it is impossible for them to pursue occupations incurring strenuous labour.’ By 1919 it was reported that ‘there has been a continuous stream … Continue reading Returned soldiers at Hawkesbury Agricultural College

Cobby, Frederick Halpin Willson, Hawkesbury, History and heritage, No 3 Squadron RAAF, RAAF, Richmond NSW, Royal Australian Air Force, Westland WapitiLeave a comment

Westland Wapitis over Richmond

Carol

Photograph from Iris Cammack collection, courtesy of Carol Roberts, Windsor, NSW. The Westland Wapiti aircraft was designed in 1926 to United Kingdom Air Ministry specifications for the Royal Air Force. It was a two-seat, general-purpose light bomber built as a replacement for the DH9A. While the Wapiti Mk 1 was fitted with a 420hp Bristol Jupiter engine, the Mk IIA was fitted with a more powerful 550hp Jupiter. It carried one fixed Vickers gun forward and one Lewis gun mounted in the rear cockpit, with a bomb load of 500lbs (227kg). Loaded, the Westland Wapiti aircraft weighed 2,450kg, about as … Continue reading Westland Wapitis over Richmond