Someone very special - Smithy

For my 3 years blip birthday I thought we would go into the city to find  something special. I saw this statue in front of the new Adelaide Oval and knew it was appropriate. Even more so in regard to my love of aviation history and flying.

Sir Ross Macpherson Smith KBE, MC & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AFC (4 December 1892 – 13 April 1922) was an Australian aviator. He and his brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, were the first pilots to fly from England to Australia, in 1919. Sir Ross was born in Semaphore, a very working class suburb of Adelaide, S.A.

He enlisted in 1914 in the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, landing at Gallipoli 13 May 1915. In 1917, he volunteered for the Australian Flying Corps. He was later twice awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross three times, becoming an air ace with 11 confirmed aerial victories.

Smith was pilot for T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and fought in aerial combat missions in the Middle East. He is mentioned several times in Lawrence's book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Chapter 114.

In 1919, he and brother Keith, Sergeant James Mallett (Jim) Bennett and Sergeant Wally Shiers flew from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, England, on 12 November 1919 in a Vickers Vimy, eventually landing in Darwin Australia on 10 December, taking less than 28 days, with actual flying time of 135 hours. The four men shared the £10,000 prize money put forward by the Australian government.

Smith was killed (along with the recently commissioned Lieutenant Bennett) while testing a Vickers Viking amphibian aircraft which crashed in Byfleet soon after taking off from Brooklands on 13 April 1922. He was only 29 when he died. Smith was given a state funeral and later buried on 15 June at the North Road Cemetery, Adelaide.

The extra photo shows the inscription beneath his statue. The modern lighting tower at the oval contrasts with his aviation feats almost 100 years ago.