Read Online Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men by Peter Fitzsimons - Free Book Online
Authors: Peter Fitzsimons
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in Australia, I want to make it quite clear that all our resources in Australia are in the Empire and for the Empire and for the preservation and the security of the Empire. ’ 4
Just five days later, when Britain did indeed declare war on Germany, Prime Minister Cook was as good as his word, and within twenty-four hours had committed Australia to fighting beside Britain against Germany.
‘It is our baptism of fire,’ the Sydney Morning Herald enthused the following day. ‘Australia knows something of the flames of war, but its realities have never been brought so close as they will be in the near future.’ 5
Borne along by this sudden surge of patriotism, and the desire to fight for what many saw as ‘the Mother Country’, able-bodied men from Sydney to Perth, from Darwin to Hobart, began to flood into recruiting centres to become part of the Australian Imperial Force, which Cook had promised Great Britain would be 20,000 men strong.
One who felt the call, despite his advancing years, was the ageing Lawrence Hargrave. Just two days before war had been formally declared, the 64-year-old had turned up at ten o’clock in the morning at the headquarters of the Coast Artillery at Sydney’s South Head, clutching a faded letter which dated from December 1877. Addressed to Mr Lawrence Hargrave Esq, it read:
I will be glad if you will consider yourself an honorary member of the
No. 5 Battery V.A.
Signed,
W. Gore Beverley, Capt., 5 Volunteer Artillery.
‘I have come to report myself,’ the old man told the bemused sentry as he handed him the letter. In Hargrave’s view this letter, given to him some forty years earlier, entitled him to an immediate position with that branch of the artillery. The commanding officer, no doubt equally bemused, took down Hargrave’s name and address and told him they would be in touch.
There was no such problem for Hargrave’s beloved son Geoffrey, however, and the young man was able to join up immediately, soon finding himself a long, long way from his father’s workshop and part of the 3rd Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force.
As to young Charles Kingsford Smith, he, too, wanted to join up immediately, and was only prevented from doing so by the outright refusal of his parents to co-operate. He was just seventeen years old, and Australian law had it that it was only males at least eighteen years old who could sign up with parental permission, and 21-year-olds and older who could join without it. Chilla wasn’t at all worried about his age; he knew of plenty of blokes who simply told fibs about their age and got in. (As a matter of fact, his own plan, developed with his cousin Rupert Swallow was for them to turn up to the recruiting station while wearing shoes with the number ‘18’ painted on the soles. That way, when they were asked ‘Are you over eighteen?’ they could truthfully reply that they were indeed! And yet the plan was no sooner discovered by their respective parents than it was crushed like a grape. 6 )
Now, Catherine Kingsford Smith, firmly supported as ever by her husband, simply wouldn’t hear of her last-born engaging in any kind of subterfuge. No. No. No. Though it went against the grain for Charles to argue strongly with the mother he adored, on this occasion the young man was so infuriated he threatened not to speak to her for six months unless she relented. After all, his brother Eric had joined up with the merchant navy two years previously and had now transferred to the Royal Australian Navy, so there was already a noble precedent! Yes, dear, but Eric is twenty-seven years old, so it is quite different.
No, it is not !
In the end, so passionate was Chilla about joining up that Catherine did relent, a little. She and William agreed that Charles could join up when he turned eighteen, the following February, so long as he promised not to join the infantry, 7 and the young man was more or less happy to settle with that. Impatiently, he
Just five days later, when Britain did indeed declare war on Germany, Prime Minister Cook was as good as his word, and within twenty-four hours had committed Australia to fighting beside Britain against Germany.
‘It is our baptism of fire,’ the Sydney Morning Herald enthused the following day. ‘Australia knows something of the flames of war, but its realities have never been brought so close as they will be in the near future.’ 5
Borne along by this sudden surge of patriotism, and the desire to fight for what many saw as ‘the Mother Country’, able-bodied men from Sydney to Perth, from Darwin to Hobart, began to flood into recruiting centres to become part of the Australian Imperial Force, which Cook had promised Great Britain would be 20,000 men strong.
One who felt the call, despite his advancing years, was the ageing Lawrence Hargrave. Just two days before war had been formally declared, the 64-year-old had turned up at ten o’clock in the morning at the headquarters of the Coast Artillery at Sydney’s South Head, clutching a faded letter which dated from December 1877. Addressed to Mr Lawrence Hargrave Esq, it read:
I will be glad if you will consider yourself an honorary member of the
No. 5 Battery V.A.
Signed,
W. Gore Beverley, Capt., 5 Volunteer Artillery.
‘I have come to report myself,’ the old man told the bemused sentry as he handed him the letter. In Hargrave’s view this letter, given to him some forty years earlier, entitled him to an immediate position with that branch of the artillery. The commanding officer, no doubt equally bemused, took down Hargrave’s name and address and told him they would be in touch.
There was no such problem for Hargrave’s beloved son Geoffrey, however, and the young man was able to join up immediately, soon finding himself a long, long way from his father’s workshop and part of the 3rd Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force.
As to young Charles Kingsford Smith, he, too, wanted to join up immediately, and was only prevented from doing so by the outright refusal of his parents to co-operate. He was just seventeen years old, and Australian law had it that it was only males at least eighteen years old who could sign up with parental permission, and 21-year-olds and older who could join without it. Chilla wasn’t at all worried about his age; he knew of plenty of blokes who simply told fibs about their age and got in. (As a matter of fact, his own plan, developed with his cousin Rupert Swallow was for them to turn up to the recruiting station while wearing shoes with the number ‘18’ painted on the soles. That way, when they were asked ‘Are you over eighteen?’ they could truthfully reply that they were indeed! And yet the plan was no sooner discovered by their respective parents than it was crushed like a grape. 6 )
Now, Catherine Kingsford Smith, firmly supported as ever by her husband, simply wouldn’t hear of her last-born engaging in any kind of subterfuge. No. No. No. Though it went against the grain for Charles to argue strongly with the mother he adored, on this occasion the young man was so infuriated he threatened not to speak to her for six months unless she relented. After all, his brother Eric had joined up with the merchant navy two years previously and had now transferred to the Royal Australian Navy, so there was already a noble precedent! Yes, dear, but Eric is twenty-seven years old, so it is quite different.
No, it is not !
In the end, so passionate was Chilla about joining up that Catherine did relent, a little. She and William agreed that Charles could join up when he turned eighteen, the following February, so long as he promised not to join the infantry, 7 and the young man was more or less happy to settle with that. Impatiently, he
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