Horace Clowes Brinsmead (2 February 1883 – 11 March 1934) was the Controller of

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between 1920 and 1933. He was born in 1883 at

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

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as the son of Edgar William Brinsmead and Annie Brinsmead. He migrated to Australia around 1903, where he settled down in

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

, later in

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. When the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

started in 1914, he joined the

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. He served and fought on

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and at

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. Recovering in England after an injury in 1916 and after completing an officers course, he served in the

Australian Flying Corps The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) was the branch of the Australian Army responsible for operating aircraft during World War I, and the forerunner of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The AFC was established in 1912, though it was not until ...

at its headquarters in London. The AFC headquarters was responsible for supervising the Australian Training Wing which was based in England. Brinsmead was promoted to

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in 1919. After his return to Australia in 1920, Horace Brinsmead was appointed Australia's first Controller of Civil Aviation. On 8 December 1920, he married Ivy Ernestine McDonald, daughter of Charles McDonald. In 1931, while travelling to London to negotiate for the establishment of the first air mail route between England and Australia, his plane was destroyed on takeoff at

Alor Setar Alor Setar ( Jawi: الور ستار, Kedahan: ''Loqstaq'') is the state capital of Kedah, Malaysia. It is the second-largest city in the state after Sungai Petani and one of the most-important cities on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia ...

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. There were no casualties and Brinsmead suffered only minor injuries. Instead of waiting for a replacement airplane, he took a commercial flight. This airplane crashed on takeoff at

Don Muang Airport Don Mueang International Airport ( th, ท่าอากาศยานดอนเมือง, , , or colloquially as , ) is one of two international airports serving the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, the other one being Suvarnabhumi Airpo ...

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on 7 December. Five others were killed, Brinsmead survived with bad injuries but was no longer able to work. He was brought back to Australia in February 1932, officially still holding his office. Acting Controller during the following year was his deputy

Edgar Johnston Edgar Charles Johnston, DFC (30 April 1896 – 22 May 1988) was an Australian fighter pilot and ace of the First World War and, later, a leading member in civil aviation in Australia. Early life and First World War Johnston was born in Pert ...

, until he took office in 1933. Brinsmead died in March 1934 in Melbourne, leaving one son and two daughters.

Tributes

* In 1951, the Australian Airline

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named a

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airliner after Brinsmead. Three years later, between 8 and 26 March 1954, the airliner, specially-equipped, was used to carry

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

and the

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on six flights during the Queen's first Royal Tour of Australia. In mid-1954, it was sold to

BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passi ...

. * In his book about Australia ''

Down Under The term ''Down Under'' is a colloquialism which is differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or Pacific Island countries collectively.Oxford English Dictionary (Electronic), Version 4.0, entry fordown under. The dictionary ...

'' in 2000, the writer

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...

retold the history of Brinsmead, but mixing up his name as ''Harold C. Brinsmead''. This confusion might in part be explained in that Brinsmead was entered into Cranleigh School under the first name 'Harold' so he may have been called both. Bryson mentioned it as ironic fact that Brinsmead undertook his last journey to show the reliability of aviation.Bill Bryson, ''Down Under. (In a Sunburned Country), 2000

References

Sources

Biography from the Melbourne Museum of Aviation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brinsmead, Horace Clowes Aviation in Australia Australian recipients of the Military Cross 1883 births 1934 deaths