Guide to the Papers of Charles Kingsford-Smith

Biographical Note

Charles Edward Kingsford-Smith was born in Brisbane in 1897, the seventh and youngest child of William Charles Smith, banker, and Catherine Mary, née Kingsford. He was educated both in Vancouver, Canada and Australia at St Andrew's Cathedral School, and at Sydney Technical High School. At 16 he was apprenticed to the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd (now CSR Limited).

In February 1915 Kingsford-Smith enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces, having previously spent three years with the Senior Cadets. He embarked with the 4th Signal Troop, 2nd Division Signal Company, on 31 May as a sapper, serving in Gallipoli and later as a dispatch rider in Egypt and France. In October 1916, as a sergeant, he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps. After training in England, he was discharged from the A.I.F. and commissioned as second lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps, in March of the following year. He was appointed flying officer in May and in July joined No. 23 Squadron in France. Wounded and shot down in August, he was awarded the Military Cross 'for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty'. After promotion to lieutenant in April 1918 he served as an R.F.C. flying instructor.

In 1919 Kingsford-Smith and his friend Cyril Maddocks piloted joy-flights in England as Kingsford Smith, Maddocks Aeros Ltd. In the subsequent year Kingsford-Smith travelled to America and worked in Hollywood as a stunt pilot. Returning to Australia in 1921, Kingsford-Smith worked with the Diggers' Aviation Co., then for Norman Brearly's Western Australian Airways Ltd. On 6 June 1923 at Marble Bar, Western Australia, he married Thelma Eileen Hope Corboy.

Identifying the potential for air transport in Australia, Kingsford-Smith, together with fellow pilot Keith Anderson, raised funds to purchase two Bristol Tourers, and in 1927 they joined with Charles Ulm to form Interstate Flying Services in Sydney. After unsuccessfully tendering for an Adelaide-Perth mail service, the partners launched a series of promotional demonstration flights. On the first of these, in June 1927, Kingsford-Smith and Ulm flew around Australia in 10 days and 5 hours. Following on from this flight, Kingsford-Smith and Ulm sought and obtained support for a trans-Pacific flight from the New South Wales Government, Sidney Myer and Californian oil magnate, G. Allan Hancock. In a second-hand, refitted Fokker plane, the Southern Cross, Kingsford-Smith, Ulm and two American crewmen, Harry Lyon and Jim Warner, took off from Oakland, California on 31 May 1928. Flying via Hawaii and Suva before arriving in Brisbane, Kingsford-Smith, Ulm and their crew completed the historic crossing in 83 hours and 38 minutes. Kingsford-Smith was subsequently awarded the Air Force Cross and was appointed honorary squadron leader, Royal Australian Air Force.

Kingsford-Smith and Ulm undertook a number of promotional flights in 1928, demonstrating the feasibility of regular passenger and mail services across the Tasman. In 1929 they set out to fly the Southern Cross to England to order a fleet of four aircraft which became the basis for their short-lived inter-capital air service, Australian National Airways. Poor weather over north-west Australia forced Kingsford-Smith to land on the flats of the Glenelg River estuary on 1 April 1929. The search for the downed aircraft and crew had a tragic outcome when pilots Keith Anderson and Robert Hitchcock perished. Kingsford-Smith, Ulm and crew were found on 1 April 1929. The flight to England resumed in June and was completed in a record time of 12 days 18 hours.

He divorced in May 1929, and married Mary Powell on 10 December 1930 at Scots Church, Melbourne. Throughout 1930 Kingsford-Smith undertook a series of record-breaking flights, including an east-west crossing of the Atlantic in June and a solo flight from London to Darwin in October.

In 1932 Kingsford-Smith was knighted for services to aviation. The following year he established a flying training school in Sydney, Kingsford Smith Air Service, but sold out in 1935. On 6 November 1935 Kingsford-Smith, with J.T. Pethybridge, took off from England, aiming for another record-breaking flight. The plane and both fliers were lost somewhere off the coast of Burma. Kingsford-Smith was survived by his wife, Mary, and son, Charles.

Kingsford-Smith's contribution to civil aviation was posthumously honoured by the featuring of his portrait on the Australian $20 note, the naming of Sydney's airport and by a memorial to him, Taylor and Ulm at Anderson Park, Sydney.

Biographical Reference(s)

Howard, Frederick. 'Kingsford Smith, Sir Charles Edward', in Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol 9. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 599-601.