Beaufort Mosman Hunter Palmer, (14 December 1919 – 22 November 2011) was an Australian aviator of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

who was recognised as one of Australia's finest wartime pilot instructors.

Early life

Beau was born in

Toowong Toowong is a riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Toowong had a population of 10,830 people. Geography Toowong is situated between Mount Coot-tha and the Brisbane River and is made up of rolling hills w ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, the son of Carl Beaufort Hunter Palmer and Florence (''née'' Robinson), and the grandson of Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer KCMG, an Irish-Australian politician and a

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

. His name ''Beaufort'' was his father's middle name which was in turn a reference to the

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

pastoral station operated by grandfather Arthur Palmer. His middle name ''Mosman'' refers to his paternal grandmother Cecilia Jessie Mosman, who was the sister of

Hugh Mosman Hugh Mosman (11 February 1843 – 15 November 1909) was a mine owner and politician in Queensland, Australia. He discovered gold in Charters Towers. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early life Mosman was born on 11 Februa ...

who discovered gold in

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under ...

. Beau was educated at

Brisbane Boys' College (Let Honour Stainless Be) , established = 1902 , type = Independent, single-sex, day and boarding , denomination = Presbyterian and Uniting Church , slogan = , headmaster = André Casson , city = Toowong , state = Queensland , country ...

, where he played in the 1st XV and also rowed in two

Head of the River (Queensland) The Queensland Head of the River refers to two high school Rowing (sport), rowing regattas in Queensland Australia, one for boys (Great Public Schools Association of Queensland Inc., GPS) and one for girls (Brisbane Schoolgirls' Rowing Associatio ...

winning crews in 1937 and 1938. He learnt to fly while still at school gaining his pilots wings in 1937 at

Archerfield Airport Archerfield can refer to: * Archerfield, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane, Australia **Archerfield Airport **RAAF Station Archerfield, a former RAAF base at Archerfield Airport *Archerfield Estate and Links Archerfield and Archerfield Links are a ...

with the Royal Queensland Aero Club.

Military career

Palmer joined the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

in 1938, was commissioned and posted to the RAAF Base

Point Cook, Victoria Point Cook is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Point Cook recorded a population of 66,781 at the 2021 census. Point Cook ...

as a flying instructor in 1939. In 1940, Palmer was the first pilot to land at the newly established

RAAF Base Amberley RAAF Base Amberley is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) military airbase located southwest of Ipswich, Queensland in Australia and southwest of Brisbane CBD. It is currently home to No. 1 Squadron (operating the F/A-18F Super Hornet), N ...

near

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. Palmer "pulled every string he could to gain a battlefield posting" and in 1944 assumed command of

No. 5 Squadron RAAF No. 5 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force training, army co-operation and helicopter squadron. The squadron was formed in 1917 as a training unit of the Australian Flying Corps in Britain, readying pilots for service on the Western Front ...

. The squadron was operating in Bougainville and Palmer flew over 100 sorties in 1944 and 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on Bouganville where he led an operation that destroyed three or four Japanese tanks in a

CAC Boomerang The CAC Boomerang is a fighter aircraft designed and manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation between 1942 and 1945. Approved for production shortly following the Empire of Japan's entry into the Second World War, the ...

fighter. The tanks were sighted by a New Zealand

Vought F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft which saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production contracts ...

pilot which returned to

Piva Airfield Piva Airfield is a former World War II airfield on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands archipelago. History World War II The 3rd Marine Division landed on Bougainville on 1 November 1943 at the start of the Bougainville Campaign, establi ...

. Squadron Leader Palmer then led other Corsairs to the target and directed the attack. In other operations Palmer achieved a direct hit on a Japanese hut at the southern end of Bouganville Island and in February and March 1945 supported the attacks at the

Battle of Tsimba Ridge The Battle of Tsimba Ridge was an engagement of the Second World War involving Australian and Japanese forces. Part of the wider Bougainville Campaign of the Pacific War, Pacific theatre, the battle occurred in the northern sector of Bougainville ...

. Palmer's war ended in late May 1945 when he stepped on an old American

anti-personnel mine Anti-personnel mines are a form of mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to anti-tank mines, which are designed for use against vehicles. Anti-personnel mines may be classified into blast mines or fragmentation mines; the latter may ...

. His leg was subsequently amputated.

Post-war career

After two years of medical treatment, Palmer purchased Kareelah, a property at Warra in the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

. Almost 30 years later he regained his wings in the 1970s. In later life Palmer was active with the

Returned and Services League of Australia The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) is a support organisation for people who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force. Mission The RSL's mission is to ensure that programs are in place for the well-being, care ...

and contributed to saving Toowong Memorial Park from development. Aged 91, Palmer died on 22 November 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Beaufort Mosman Hunter 1919 births 2011 deaths Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Australian aviators Australian World War II pilots People from Queensland Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Australian Air Force officers People educated at Brisbane Boys' College