Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Hobart was the son of Frederick William CATO & Sophia Burgess ROWNTREE and was born on the 22nd of February 1881 in Taranaki Street, Wellington, New Zealand.

His parents were married on the 9th of January 1879 in Wellington, New Zealand.

His father was the son of William CATO & Sarah Ann GOULD and was born on the 25th of April 1855 in Mildura, VIC.
His mother was the daughter of Edward Casson ROWNTREE & Hannah Elizabeth NICHOLLS and was born on the 15th of August 1855 in Hobart, TAS.

Hobart was the second child born into this family of 8 children.

His father was a grocer and the family lived in Taranaki Street, Wellington, New Zealand.

The family moved to Swan Hill in Victoria in the early 1890’s and by 1899 had moved to 124 Sydney Street, Coburg where his father ran a grocers business.
After he completed his schooling Hobart became a motor mechanic.

At the age of 20 it appears that Hobart sailed from Hobson’s Bay, Victoria at 4pm on the 20th of August 1901 for South Africa.
Also on board were 800 soldiers who had previously served there.

Hobart enlisted into the 1st Scottish Horse on the 11th of September 1901 in Durban, South Africa and was allotted the service number 35502 and posted to the 1st Battalion.

*There is a strong possibility that he was conscripted into the Australian Commonwealth Regiment formed at Newcastle, Natal in September 1901. All passengers on the Brittanic had this happen even though they had already agreed to serve in other units.
Hobart also had a second number 4302 which can not be found in records of the Scottish Horse. When the ACR was disbanded as a unit after Baakenlaghte in October 1901 all personnel were permitted to join their chosen units. The receiving units were required to back date their service to arrival in South Africa to avoid the need to construct a special medal roll.
Hobart’s enlistment date of the 11th of September 1901 supports this.

Hobart was discharged on completion of his service on the 22nd of March 1902 in Johannesburg.

Hobart married Mary Elizabeth BIDDLESTONE on the 4th of July 1907 in Benoni, South Africa and Mary was a British Army Nurse at the time.
Mary was the daughter of John David BIDDLESTONE & Applena PARKIN and was born on the 15th of June 1881 in Toxteth Park, Lancashire, England.

It then appears they moved to England for a short period of time as they welcomed their first child here; Helena Queenie, in 1907
On the 16th of May 1908 they arrived in Albany from Liverpool, on their way to Melbourne.

Yootha Winnifred Emily was then born in Brunswick in 1909 and by the following year they had moved to 103 Moreland Road, Moreland where Hobart had gained employment again as a mechanic and engineer.

By 1914 they had moved to 22 Edward Street, Elsternwick and Hobart’s interests in aircraft engines had grown.
It is clear that Hobart must have been an exceptional mechanic as his skills had been noticed by the Chief Test Pilot for the Sopwith Aviation Company in England, Mr Harry George Hawker.

Harry Hawker returned home to Australia in January 1914 and after promoting the Sopwith “Tabloid” biplane, Harry returned to England in June 1914 and Hobart left his young family in Victoria and went with him to help the war effort.

After the war Hobart returned home to his family and was renting a home in 1919 at 50 Miller Street, Fitzroy and had returned to his mechanics.
The Cato family then moved to Clare in South Australia and Harold set up his own motor mechanic garage business in the Main Street of Clare.
He was still involved in aviation and in July 1921 he was the flight mechanic to Lieutenant Long in the record breaking flight from Adelaide to Melbourne in a 80 h.p. Sopwith-Dove aircraft.
A. G. Long had been the first airman to fly across Bass Strait and now he and Hobart had successfully covered the distance between the two capitals in 4.5 hours, with most of the flight being at 12,000 feet.

In 1926 Hobart & Mary had an opportunity to get away from business for ten days if they went at once and as they had not been away together since 1919, they eagerly took the opportunity, in spite of the fact that no arrangements had been made as to where to go or when.
They left Clare for Adelaide at 6am, did some business and set off about 2pm and reached Yatala the first night.
The second day they arrived at Parachilna, via Orroroo, Cradock and Hawker and the by the third day they had reached Copley. Maree was next on the fourth day followed by Coward Springs on the fifth; with their dear old Ford taking the sand drifts with never a growl or a grumble.

In all they travelled 2066 kilometres through the distant outback of South Australia in a T model Ford claiming to have only used 145 litres of fuel (7.82 litres per 100 km) and 9.1 litres of oil.

Hobart was very much involved in the town of Clare. He played golf for Clare and was a member of the Freemason’s Lodge and Clare RSL Sub-Branch.
In 1929 he donated a wireless receiving set to the Clare Hospital.

Their eldest daughter Helena was also very keen on aviation and in 1931 she began a course of instruction as an air pilot at the Parafield Airdrome.
On the 2nd of February 1932 she obtained her private pilots license and became just the second woman in South Australia to qualify for a pilot’s license.
To celebrate this she flew Hobart from Parafield to Clare and return.

Hobart was also involved in the origins of motorcycle racing in Port Pirie and established the Cato 6 Hour Trial and donated the silver trophies.
It was an annual event covering 185 miles, starting and ending in Pt Pirie.

Hobart’s Garage was known as the best equipped in the district. He was the authorised dealer for Ford cars and trucks and his showroom was always full of a range of new cars, tyres and accessories.

In 1940 he was a member of the RAAF recruiting and pre selection committee in the area.
He retired in November 1942 and sold his garage, stock and plant.

Mary died on the 5th of October 1960 in Clare and Hobart buried her in the Clare Cemetery; Plot NA50.

Hobart died on the 24th of October 1967 in Clare and was buried in the Clare Cemetery; Plot NA51, next to Mary.

Military

Boer

At the age of 20 it appears that Hobart sailed from Hobson’s Bay, Victoria at 4pm on the 20th of August 1901 for South Africa.
Also on board were 800 soldiers who had previously served there.

Hobart enlisted into the 1st Scottish Horse on the 11th of September 1901 in Durban, South Africa and was allotted the service number 35502 and posted to the 1st Battalion.

*There is a strong possibility that he was conscripted into the Australian Commonwealth Regiment formed at Newcastle, Natal in September 1901. All passengers on the Brittanic had this happen even though they had already agreed to serve in other units.
Hobart also had a second number 4302 which can not be found in records of the Scottish Horse. When the ACR was disbanded as a unit after Baakenlaghte in October 1901 all personnel were permitted to join their chosen units. The receiving units were required to back date their service to arrival in South Africa to avoid the need to construct a special medal roll.
Hobart’s enlistment date of the 11th of September 1901 supports this.

In the early months of 1902 the regiment was constantly on the trek and fighting. At Gruisfontein on the 5th of February 1902, the whole of Sarel Albert's commando was captured.
They charged the enemy's laager with great dash, the Scottish Horse taking the main share of the attack and as most of the Boer horses had been stampeded by the fire of Major Leader's pompom, the gallantry of the attacking force was rewarded by an unusually large measure of success.
7 Boers were killed, 132 prisoners taken, 11 of who were wounded, together with 130 rifles and 2800 rounds of ammunition.
A large number of horses, mules, cattle, and wagons were also taken.
The casualties to the Scottish Horse were; 2 officers and 6 men wounded and were noted for behaving with great gallantry.

They were then in the column of Colonel Kekewich and the brigade of General Walter Kitchener in the last great drives in the Western Transvaal. In the drive which started from the Klerksdorp blockhouse line on the 23rd of March and returned the following day, the troops covered 120 kilometres in twenty-four hours.
To the 1st Scottish Horse chiefly belonged the credit for the capture of three 15-pounder guns and two pom-poms.

Hobart was discharged on completion of his service on the 22nd of March 1902 in Johannesburg and awarded the Queens South African Medal & 3 clasps.

WW1 – Aviation

It is clear that Hobart must have been an exceptional mechanic as his skills had been noticed by the Chief Test Pilot for the Sopwith Aviation Company in England, Mr Harry George Hawker.

Harry Hawker was a qualified mechanic in his own rite and had left Victoria for England with 3 of his friends in March 1911 looking for work in the aviation industry.
By the following year Harry had gained employment as a mechanic with Sopwith Aviation and within 12 months he had gained his Pilots License.

Harry Hawker returned home to Australia in January 1914 with Harry Kauper (mechanic) and the Sopwith “Tabloid” biplane, the most advanced aircraft in Australia at that point. His main objective was to promote the ever increasing aspect of flight to the Australian defence forces.

His presence and displays resulted in the Australian Government finally activating the aircraft they had purchased/received 12 months earlier (had not been unpacked from their crates until Harry’s arrival).
In his initial flights in Australia, he took off from New Street, Elsternwick, power lines and all.
From here he flew to Government House where he landed on the lawns and met the Governor General, Lord Denman as part of an impromptu visit.
Whilst in Australia, Harry demonstrated exhilarating flights from Elsternwick, Caulfield racecourse, Randwick racecourse, Victoria Park racecourse, Albury racecourse and Ballarat. No one in Australia had witnessed flights of this calibre previously.
He also took Senator Millen (Minister for Defence) on a flight from Elsternwick.

During his time in Elsternwick Harry had obviously been impressed with Hobart, so when Harry returned to England in June 1914, Hobart went with him to help the war effort.
Harry became the prime test pilot for all Sopwith planes during the war and in one period, covering 199 days, he tested (flew) a total of 295 planes, most were brand new and being tested for the first time – a very risky business.

Hobart became Harry’s flight test engineer being particularly involved with fitting and tuning engines and the introduction of gun synchronising gear.

In December of 1914, the Sopwith Aviation Company had designed a small, two seat biplane powered by an 80 horsepower Gnome rotary engine, which became known as the “Sigrist Bus” after company’s manager Fred Sigrist.

This plane first flew on the 6th of June 1915 with Harry as pilot and Hobart as the engineer. When they flew to Hendon on this day they broke the world height record.
Although this plane set a new altitude record on the day of its first flight, only one was ever built, and it ended up as the company’s own “taxi” or “bus”, transporting personnel as required.

Hobart sent a postcard home from Southampton on the 23rd of July 1915 saying that “Sopwith have set up a branch there and Harry Hawker had been made manager.
They worked from 6.30am to 10pm with half an hour for breakfast and tea and an hour for lunch”.
At that time Sopwith had many orders for floatplanes and flying was done from these Woolston works.

The Sigrist Bus formed the basis for a larger fighter plane dubbed the Sopwith LCT (Land Clerget Tractor) and was powered by a 110 horsepower Clerget engine.
Like the Sigrist Bus, the upper wings of the Sopwith LCT was joined to the fuselage by a pair of short (half) struts and a pair of longer struts, forming a “W” when viewed from the front.
This is what gave the Sopwith LCT its nickname of the Sopwith 1½ Strutter. The first prototype was ready in mid-December 1915, with further tests done through January of 1916.

The 1½ Strutter was built with a wire-braced, wood and fabric construction – pretty standard fare for the era.
The pilot and machine gunner sat in separated tandem cockpits (one behind each other), with the pilot sitting in front, giving the Vickers gunner a view for his targeting.
The Royal Flying Corps preferred the Vickers-Challenger synchronization gear for the Vickers machine gun, while the RNAS (Royal Navy) wanted the Scarff-Dibovski gear for the Lewis machine gun.

While these synchronized gears helped a shooter NOT to accidentally take out their own propellers, more often than was preferred, they would accidentally take out their own props.
In 1915, the Sopwith Company also built an aeroplane just for test pilot Harry Hawker… a single seat biplane that used a 50 horsepower Gnome engine, which everyone simply called Hawker’s Runabout because that’s what he used it for – runabouts.

They built another four planes using the same plan, calling these the Sopwith Sparrows. Using the same plan, Sopwith built a larger fighter plane that was more powerful and used the progressive ailerons rather than wing-warping for lateral control.
This was the Sopwith Pup, a single seat biplane with fabric covering the frame, and with staggered, equal-span wings.

Most of the Sopwith Pups used a Le Rhône 9C rotary engine pushing out 80 horsepower. This engine was built on the design of the French company Société des Moteurs Le Rhône.
It featured a single 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun that was synchronized via a Sopwith-Kauper synchronizer – to better avoid shooting off the propeller blades.
The Sopwith Pup first began flying with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in the autumn of 1916 and was considered to be a very good plane all around with good manoeuvrability.

A total of 1,770 Pups were built by and for Sopwith, with 96 built by the Sopwith Aviation Company, and the remainder by sub-contractors: Standard Motor Company, Whitehead Aircraft and William Beardmore & Co.

Despite Mr Sopwith himself being awarded the CBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1918, he was bankrupt after the war ended thanks to being hit with anti-profiteering taxes.
Broke, but no broken, Sir Thomas Sopwith re-entered the aviation business in 1920 when he joined Harry Hawker’s new firm Hawker Aircraft as its chairman.

Hobart served in 2 wars, Boer and WW1

He met his wife Sophie in South Africa, she was a nurse. They married in Benoni, SA.

Returned to Melbourne Victoria and was recalled to England during WWI to work as an engineer for Sopwith.

Details of the Sopwith history during the war can be found here - see the heading 100 years ago : Kingston Aviation (www.kingstonaviation.org) (www.kingstonaviation.org)

More details and full and interesting story to come.