![Australian aviator Guy Menzies (15456280993)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Australian_aviator_Guy_Menzies_%2815456280993%29.jpg)
Guy Lambton Menzies (20 August 19091 November 1940) was an Australian
aviator who flew the first solo
trans-Tasman
Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, ''trans-Tasman commerce'' refers to commerce betwee ...
flight, from
Sydney,
Australia to the
West Coast of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, on 7 January 1931.
Family
The eldest of the five children of the medical practitioner Guy Dixon Menzies (1873–1947), and Ida Mabel Menzies , née Lambton (1881–1975), Guy Lambton Menzies was born at
Drummoyne, New South Wales
Drummoyne is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Drummoyne is six kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative center for the local government area of the City of ...
on 20 August 1909.
Siblings
His younger brother, Ian Lambton Menzies (1912–1941), who served in the RAAF, died on 18 April 1941 in an aircraft accident near
Ravenswood, Queensland
Ravenswood is a rural town and locality in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Ravenswood had a population of 255 people.
It is historically and currently a gold mining town.
Geography
The Flinders Hi ...
, and about 100 km miles south of
Townsville
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...
.
Guy's other three siblings were: Betty Lambton Menzies (1915–1980), later Mrs. William A. Horsley, medical practitioner Bruce Lambton Menzies (1917–2021), and Kathleen Audrey Lambton Menzies (born 1921), later Mrs. Joseph S. Henderson.
Marriage
He married Mrs. Marcia Ina Grundy (born 1909), née Leslie, in London, on 12 April 1940.
The fact that the Sydney press announcement of his impending marriage identified his future wife as one "Mrs. Marcia Ina Grundy" is highly significant. Connolly (2017b) reveals that the 'true story' behind the "mysterious injuries" that Menzies sustained while serving at
North Weald
North Weald Bassett or simply North Weald is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. The village is within the North Weald Ridges and Valleys landscape area.
A market is held every Saturday and Bank Holiday Mo ...
and reported in the 1936 press, were that — rather than receiving 'head injuries' from a 40 ft fall from a window — the most significant of the injuries that he had sustained (which were "not wholly consistent with a fall") were two broken kneecaps, of such severity that it was thought for some considerable time that he would never be able to fly again. The injuries that Menzies sustained had been inflicted upon Menzies by, or on behalf of, "one of his fellow officers",
Squadron-Leader E.M.F. Grundy (26046), later Air Marshal Sir Edouard Grundy, the "aggrieved husband" of Marcia, with whom Menzies was having an affair. This fact, according to Connolly, explains why the details of the secret, internal, R.A.F. enquiries were never released to the public. According to Connolly, Marcia eventually divorced her husband, who had left England at some time before her marriage to Menzies, which took place some four years after Menzies had been assaulted.
Marcia, and her son Frederick Michael (born 1934), moved to Australia in 1946. Michael went on to join the RAAF.
Education
He was educated at the
academically selective Fort Street High School in Sydney.
Speedway
While still a teenager, Menzies was a well-performed dirt-track, concrete track, and speedway motorcycle rider who raced under the assumed name of Don McKay, and was billed as "The Flying Scotchman". A number of other Australian speedway riders, such as Dave Brewster, Ern Buck,
Vic Huxley
Victor Nelson Huxley (23 September 1906 – 24 June 1982 in Brisbane. Queensland) was a speedway rider who won the Star Riders' Championship, the forerunner of the Speedway World Championship, in 1930 and finished runner-up in 1931 and 1932. H ...
, Bill Kilminster, Charlie Spinks, and
Lionel Van Praag
Lionel Maurice Van Praag, GM (17 December 1908 – 15 May 1987) was an Australian motorcycle speedway champion, who won the inaugural Speedway World Championship in London on 10 September 1936. Van Praag's victory saw him established as Austra ...
also held pilot's licenses.
First solo trans-Tasman flight
The first crossing of the Tasman by air had been achieved on 10–11 September 1928 by
Charles Kingsford Smith
Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand.
Kingsford Smith was b ...
and
Charles Ulm in the ''
Southern Cross
Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...
''.
Pilot's license
Menzies had gained his pilot's license in 1929, and had flying experience.
''Southern Cross Junior''
The plane Menzies used for his solo crossing was the
Avro Sports Avian that Smith had flown from England to Australia, the ''Southern Cross Junior''.
Blenheim
Fearing he might be denied permission for the flight,
Menzies informed the authorities and his family that he was flying to
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
. Instead, he left
Sydney at 1 AM on 7 January 1931, and headed for
Blenheim, New Zealand.
Hari Hari
Poor weather forced Menzies off course, and after 11 hours and 45 minutes, with the high tides in the area removing any possibility of him making a safe emergency landing on a sandy beach, he crash-landed (at 3:12PM local time) upside-down in the La Fontaine Swamp near
Hari Hari on New Zealand's
West Coast, which he had supposed was a meadow.
::As soon as it became known that Mr Menzies was heading for New Zealand . . .
Colonel Horace C. Brinsmead, at that time Controller of Civil Aviation in Australia, dispatched a message to the Director of Air Services in the Defence Department in New Zealand. He asked for word about Menzies.
"Pilot G. L. Menzies left Sydney at 1 a.m. this morning flying solo in an Avro Avian aircraft G-ABCF with destination New Zealand. This department had no prior knowledge of Menzies’s proposal. I understand he had fuel for 18 hours’ flight. Appreciate earliest advice of news of his arrival in New Zealand."
The day after the successful flight Colonel Brinsmead’s New Zealand opposite number replied.
"Pilot Menzies made forced landing 20 miles south of
Ross 3.12 p.m. yesterday. News of arrival and your cable arrived too late for early advice. Remarkable achievement but hope no more unheralded flights of this nature."
A note on the departmental file records the time of the flight as 12 hours 47 minutes. Leslie Jillett, in his book "Wings over
icthe Tasman" gives the time as 12 hours 12 minutes and the aviator’s mother is reported to have said that his flying time was still half an hour less than that. — ''The Press'', Tuesday, 13 July 1954.
Despite the unfortunate landing, Menzies had broken Smith and Ulm's time by 2½ hours.
Historical marker
An extensive outdoor historical marker with photographs and descriptions is located at GPS coordinate
−43.076716, 170.531477(south latitude, east longitude). The marker is approximately half a kilometre southwest of the actual landing spot (now on private land), which is marked by a pole with wind sock that are visible from the historical marker. News clippings and additional historical details are on display in the lobby of the Hotel Hari Hari, a few kilometres away on the
State Highway 6.
Royal Air Force service
He joined the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
in 1936, and served as a RAF
squadron leader
Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is als ...
during 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 opposi ...
. He was part of the crew of one of the two
Sunderlands that rescued the crew of the torpedoed ''
Kensington Court'' on 18 September 1939.
Death
He and his crew were killed on 1 November 1940, when his
Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North Ea ...
flying boat (N9020) was shot down over the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
while en route from
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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. No remains of the aircraft or crew were ever found.
Commemoration
He is commemorated at the
Alamein Memorial
The Alamein Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial in the El Alamein War Cemetery, El Alamein, Egypt. The memorial commemorates 11,866 Commonwealth forces members who died during World War II. The memorial was designed by ...
in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
.
Squadron Leader Guy Lambton Menzies, Service Number:32061)
''Commonwealth War Graves Commission'', www.cwgc.org/, retrieved 8 January 2022.
75th anniversary
On 7 January 2006, celebrations were held in Hari Hari to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Menzies' trans-Tasman voyage, and were marked by a re-enactment of the flight by adventurer Dick Smith. He landed at what was dubbed "Hari Hari International Airport".
Notes
References
Bennett, Bruce (1983), "Hayward, Charles Wiltens Andrée (1866–1950)"
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 9, Melbourne University Press.
Conolly, Pauline (2017a), "Guy Menzies: A Life Lived At Fast Forward", ''paulineconolly.com'', 18 July 2017.
Conolly, Pauline (2017b), "Guy Menzies: Larrikin Airman", ''paulineconolly.com'', 21 July 2017.
Guy Menzies riding a motorbike at a speedway, Sydney, 1920s
E.A. Crome collection of photographs on aviation, ''National Library of Australia''.
* Jillett, Leslie (1953), ''Wings Across the Tasman'', Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
Swopes, Ryan R. (2019), "7 January 1931", ''thisdayinaviation.com''.
* Wearne, Max (2005), ''The Life of Guy Menzies: The Forgotten Flyer'', 1st Edition (1 January 2005).
Commemorative Roll: Squadron Leader Guy Lambton Menzies (32061), ''Australian War Memorial''.
External links
Peter Clarke, NZine
(from the family album of Dr Peter Clarke)
Guy Menzies: a rebel at heart - a story from the archives of the National Library of Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menzies, Guy
1909 births
1940 deaths
Military personnel from New South Wales
People educated at Fort Street High School
Australian speedway riders
Australian aviators
Royal Air Force squadron leaders
People from Sydney
Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II
Royal Air Force pilots of World War II
1931 in New Zealand
History of the West Coast, New Zealand
Sportsmen from New South Wales
Aviators killed by being shot down