Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

He served as a Warrant Officer in the RAAF during World War II.

After the war, John returned home with an English girl as his wife, Rosemary Alice Hickman, but, after two years returned to England with his wife and baby son Christopher and joined the R.A.F., eventually being stationed in Malaysia where he was also an honorary instructor for the Royal Aero Club of Singapore. While stationed in England, he served with a famous jet battalion of aerobatics, the Red Rockets.
When he took his discharge in 1959 from Singapore, he sent his family back to Australia by ship and flew his small homemade Auster aircraft via Indonesia to Australia. When he arrived at the Australian coast he was within sight of Darwin, a remarkable feat of navigation for solo flight in such a small plane. When refueling at Tennant Creek on his way to Adelaide, a dust storm created an unexpected emergency by nearly blowing his little plane away. It was all hands for a rescue to grab hold of the Auster plane. Tribute must be paid to John for his ability & enterprise as an aviator, in pioneering the establishment of a flying industry on Eyre Peninsula. He flew many charter flights and toured the shows and other fixtures giving joy rides to stimulate the interest in flying. He initiated the Port Lincoln Flying Club and became the instructor. Later he was president of the Club until his untimely death in a car accident in 1968 leaving a son and two young daughters. He organised and staged several air pageants and with his special training gave memorable displays of aerobatics. He trained numerous trainee pilots and one became a commercial pilot, achieving instructor rating. He founded the firms Commodore Aviation and Commodore Agricultural Services, which served the fishing and agricultural industries. Under new management Commodore Aviation is still in business in 2002. In 1960, John pioneered the aerial fish spotting of salmon and tuna and over 30,000 tons were caught as a result. He flew a number of daring mercy flights to islands off the coast serviced by lighthouses and these required a high degree of flying skill and nerve.

Contributor: Doug Hooper