Guide to the papers of Norman 'Val' St Leon
MS 10322
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2017
Collection Summary
- Creator
- St Leon, Norman 'Val', Capt
- Title
- Papers of Norman 'Val' St Leon
- Date Range
- 1937-2016
- Collection Number
- MS 10322
- Extent
- 5.37 metres (18 ms boxes + 2 large folio boxes + 2 medium folio boxes + 1 folder + 8 sound AV carriers + 1 digital carrier)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Special Collections (Manuscripts)
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The collection comprises papers, correspondence, cards, recorded interviews and photographs relating to Norman 'Val' St Leon's working life. The bulk of the original consignment relates to St Leon's employment as a navigator and pilot with Qantas, and his career in the RAAF during the Second World War. Included in corespondence is a Christmas card St Leon sent to his father while serving with the RAAF in North Africa in 1941. These cards provide further insight into St Leon's experience in wartime aviation as well as providing an example of the kinds of material that was produced for members of the RAAF to send home.There is also a large amount of written material from his Master of Letters, and essays and lectures written on aviation, particularly in relation to Qantas' industrial agreement. The recorded interviews are with Margaret Throsby of ABC Radio on the internal pilot's strike, Bill Bulson of 2MBS, Ron Yates, former CEO Qantas, Don Gray of Qantas, and Bert Smithwell, also of Qantas. This collection includes a recording of a Boeing 747 SIM checkout and flying training session.
Conditions Governing Access
Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn7501077).
Conditions Governing Use
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the St Leon family. Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred Citation
Items from this collection should be cited as 'Papers of Norman 'Val' St Leon', National Library of Australia, MS 10322, [class/series/file/item number(s)]'.
Finding Aid Source(s)
Please note: This finding aid may comprise or contain descriptive information provided by donors, researchers and/or volunteers.
Abbreviations
Note that in the finding aid and/or the collection, the abbreviations VSL and PSL refer to Val St Leon and Patricia St Leon.
Biographical Note
Born at Erskineville in 1921, the only child of Norman and Vera (nee Lee) St Leon, he was given the middle name of "Valentine", after his mother's birthday, February 14. He became known as "Val". The fourth generation of a circus family, Val grew up travelling from town to town in a horse-drawn cart. The Great Depression precipitated the break-up of the family circus and Val returned to Sydney with his mother.He began attending school regularly at 10. Leaving Bondi Commercial School at 15, with prizes for English, science and athletics, he joined Coote & Jorgensen, a firm of engineers at Mascot, as an apprentice fitter and turner. Before he could complete his indentures, however, war broke out in Europe.
In October 1940, St Leon boarded the Aquitania, to join a troopship convoy bound for the Middle East. There followed 15 months on active service with No. 3 Squadron of the RAAF in North Africa and Syria. During the retreat from Benghazi, the Hurricane-equipped squadron narrowly escaped annihilation when the crack Italian Ariete Armoured Division surrounded its remote aerodrome.St Leon's initial posting to the Operational Training Unit, RAAF Mildura was followed by another to RAAF Oakey in 1943 where, by now a 21-year old sergeant, he organised the Allison Overhaul Division, leading 400 men in overhauling the Allison aircraft engines supplied to the RAAF under the Lend Lease program. At war's end, St Leon was a flight sergeant in the world's fifth-largest air force, yet the emerging field of civil aviation seemed to hold greater promise. Taking a few days leave, he visited the Rose Bay offices of a little airline called Qantas hoping to find "some sort of a job". It looked a distinctly "Mickey Mouse" affair but, discharged from the RAAF on August 14, 1946, St Leon joined Qantas the next day.
The following year in his new role as senior flight engineer, he entered the Lockheed factory at Burbank, California, along with other Qantas crewmen, to train and take delivery of the new Lockheed Constellation 749. They left Sydney by ship but returned several months later by air, landing four "Connies" in Qantas livery at Mascot after a 33-hour flight by way of Honolulu, Canton Island and Nadi. The new aircraft and their smartly uniformed, seven-man crews, were enthusiastically greeted by thousands of Sydneysiders.
Qantas expanded rapidly in the post-war period although air travel remained beyond the reach of most Australians for years to come. The Kangaroo Route between Sydney and London – the ancestor of today's QF1 – took up to a week to complete with overnight stops in places such as Singapore, Cairo, Rome and Paris. Three stewards and one hostess looked after the Constellation's 60 passengers, typically comprised of politicians, senior bureaucrats and corporate executives. Patricia Burke, from Innisfail, north Queensland, was one of the first nine hostesses employed by Qantas. St Leonand Patricia married in 1950 at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.
St Leon retrained as a navigator before transferring, in 1956, to his first flight duties as a second officer on the Lockheed Super Constellation 1049. From that point, he mastered, and eventually captained, each of the aircraft acquired by Qantas: the Lockheed Electra, the Boeing 707 and then, finally, the jumbo-sized Boeing 747, the aircraft that truly opened up the prospect of international air travel to most Australians.
He conceived and built two family homes, at Chatswood and Wahroonga. In the 1970s, he restored a derelict New England grazing property to viability. In 2004, he was admitted as a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. In 2005, he received the degree of master of letters for his dissertation on the struggle of Australia's airline pilots for professional status. In 2014, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to aviation and the community.
St Leon died in 2016, and is survived by Patricia, his wife of 65 years, their three children, Mark, Jane and Anthony, and eight grandchildren.
Item Descriptions
Class 1. Consignment received 2017, 1937-2016
The collection comprises papers, correspondence and photographs relating to Norman 'Val' St Leon's working life. The bulk of the collection relates to St Leon's employment as a navigator and pilot with Qantas, and also his career in the RAAF during the Second World War. There is also a large amount of written material from his Master of Letters, and essays and lectures written on aviation; particularly in relation to Qantas' industrial agreement.
Series. Miscellaneous papers
Series. Interviews and stories
Living History-AFAP (Australian Federation of Pilots) Captain NV St Leon, 2007-2010 (File 8) - Box 2
Accounts written by VSL on memorable incidents during his career as a civilian pilot (File 10) - Box 2
Short stories from VSL recounting amusing incidents during his career as a pilot and flight engineer (File 12) - Box 2
Series of essays from VSL recounting amusing incidents during his career as a pilot and flight engineer (File 13) - Box 3
Series of essays from VSL recounting amusing incidents during his career as a pilot and flight engineer (File 14) - Box 3
Series. Civil documentation
Travel documents; Aviation licenses; embossed leather wallet; Aeronautical handbook; diary/appointment/address book; aviation notebook, 1947-1988 (File 17) - Box 5
Log Book no 3; flight computer instrument; metal micrometre instrument - machinists measuring tool (File 18) - Box 5
Airline pilots' (Qantas) agreement; notes, clippings and journals relating to VSL's time at Qantas, 1972-1996 (File 19) - Box 5
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's Memorial Lecture; copy of paper 'Why is there an Us versus Them divide at Qantas?' by Peter Walton, 1990 (File 20) - Box 5
Qantas Flight Crew (Long Haul) certified agreement EBA 6, 2003-2004 (File 21) - Box 6
1 x special format carrier of same title removed and rehoused to Digital Carriers Box 18
Dossier of Qantas Historical Documents; Operations Manual -Avalon L/R Instrument Coupled Approach (File 26) - Box 7
Series. Aviation
Series. Lectures
The Constellation Lectures; Part 1 - the C69-L749 Flight Engineering, and Part 2 L1049-L1649 Piloting (File 36) - Box 8
Series. RAAF
Pilots Handbook for Operation and Maintenance; Allison Engines Operation Maintenance and Overhaul Handbook, 1940 (File 50) - Box 12
Spiral bound copy of 'Ground Crew, A Middle East Diary' by Felix W Sainsbury (File 52) - Box 13
Desert Air force in North Africa October 1940-July 1943
Bound copy of 'No 2 OUT RAAF Mildura and No 8 OUT RAAF Parkes' by John Lever (File 53) - Box 13
A history of RAAF Fighter Pilot Operational Training Units
Series. Master of Letters, Central Queensland University (CQU)
Spiral bound dissertation of VSL, 2003 (File 68) - Box 15
Twenty Tumultuous Years; the confrontations between Qantas and pilots
University essays, correspondence with lecturers (File 72) - Box 16
Special format material removed; 4 x CD's removed and rehoused to Digital Carriers Box 18 - ABC Capricornia 2006; Community Radio 4 You Rockhampton; M Litt 2008; A Struggle for Profess Status Lecture
ABC Capricornia, 2006 (Item NLA.MS-DM000989) - Digital-Carriers-Box 18
1 item, ProDisc Australia, Data CDCommunity Radio 4 You (Item NLA.MS-DM000990) - Digital-Carriers-Box 18
1 item, Techworks, Data CDRockhampton 98.5 FM
De-framed collection; graduation and aircraft photographs; Royal Meteorological Society; Master of Letters; Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; International Curmudgeon Society Certificate; Australian Institute of Company Directors' admission certificate; Institute of Automotive Mechanical Engineers; Institute of Automotive and Aeronautical Engineers; Order of Australia; various wall plaques of aeronautical organisations, 1947-2014 (File 79) - Folio-Box 17
Series. Patricia St Leon
Class 2. Consignment received 2021, 1941-2016
This consignment comprises greeting cards to and from Norman 'Val' St Leon including a Christmas card sent to his father while serving with the RAAF in North Africa in 1941, plus memorial cards, 2 black and white portrait photographs in a locket, letter and printed materials relating to Qantas and female pilots in the air services.
Series. Miscellaneous papers
Greeting cards, photographs, ephemera, 1941-2016 (File 88) - Box 2
File comprises greeting cards to and from Norman 'Val' St Leon including a Christmas card sent to his father while serving with the RAAF in North Africa in 1941, plus memorial cards, 2 black and white portrait photographs in a locket, letter and printed materials relating to Qantas and female pilots in the air services.
Class 3. Consignment received 2021, c. 1975-2009
This consignment comprises recorded interviews and other audio material. The interviews are with Margaret Throsby of ABC Radio on the internal pilot's strike, Bill Bulson of 2MBS, Ron Yates, former CEO Qantas, Don Gray of Qantas, and Bert Smithwell, also of Qantas. This collection includes a recording of a Boeing 747 SIM checkout and flying training session. The other audio material relates to the funeral service for Mal Timms (ex-RAAF).
Interview with Ron Yates, former CEO Qantas, January 2004 (Item NLA.SAVA000263) - Cassette-Box SAVA 8
1 item, TEAC 120, Compact cassette tapeBoeing 747 SIM checkout & Flying training, c. 1975 (Item NLA.SAVA000264) - Cassette-Box SAVA 8
1 item, TDK D90, Compact cassette tapeInterview with Don Gray (Qantas), 8 July 2003 (Item NLA.SAVA000265) - Cassette-Box SAVA 8
1 item, Sony 60, Compact cassette tapeInterview with Bert Smithwell (Qantas), 30 July 2003 (Item NLA.SAVA000267) - Cassette-Box SAVA 8
1 item, Sony 60, Compact cassette tapeCapt N V St Leon