THE 1919 LONDON TO ADELAIDE AIR RACE FLAG

with fringe on three sides, signed by Ross Smith, Keith Smith, J.M. Bennett and W.H. Shiers together with a photo-postcard of the flag being displayed at the 1938 Air Mail Exhibition inChristchurch and a letter of letter of thanks to the owner for the loan

21CM HIGH

PROVENANCE
John Martin & Co., Adelaide Boy Scouts’ Association, South Australia
gift of the above Mrs Harry Bickford, Mt Lofty, South Australia
purchased from Boy Scout Endowment Fund charity auction Mr McNab
Collectibles, Leski Auctions, Melbourne, 18 February 2001, lot 256 
Private Collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

John Martin & Co., Adelaide, 25-29 March 1920 Parliament House steps, Adelaide, 30 March 1920 New Zealand Airmail Exhibition, Christchurch, 7 November 1938

LITERATURE

‘Sir Ross Smith’s Flag’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 25 March 1920, p. 6
‘Sir Ross Smith’s Flag’, The Register, Adelaide, 25 March 1920, p. 6
‘The Flag of Flags. Australia’s Most Historic Banner!’ (advertisement), The Register, Adelaide, 25 March 1920, p. 8
‘“Our Old Bus”: Aviators’ Regrets: The Smith Party Entertained’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 26 March 1920, p. 8
‘“Our Old Bus.”’ (advertisement), The Advertiser, Adelaide, 26 March 1920, p. 8
‘“Our Old Bus!”’ (advertisement), The Register, Adelaide, 26 March 1920, p. 8
‘The Aviator’s Flag’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 27 March 1920, p. 8
‘Memorable Flag Sale: The Banner of Victory’, The Mail, Adelaide, 27 March 1920, p. 3
‘For God, King, and Country: Boy Scout £10,000 Appeal’, The Mail, Adelaide, 27 March 1920, p. 3
‘An Historic Flag’, The Register, Adelaide, 27 March 1920, p. 7
‘Sir Ross Smith’s Flag’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 29 March 1920, p. 8
‘For God, King, and Country: Boy Scout £10,000 Appeal’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 29 March 1920, p. 9
‘Concerning People’, The Register, Adelaide, 29 March 1920, p. 7
‘For the convenience of bidders …, (classified advertisement), The Register, Adelaide, 29 March 1920, p. 7
‘An Historic Sale’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 30 March 1920, p. 6
‘An Historical Flag Sale’, The Register, Adelaide, 30 March 1920, p. 6
‘Public Auction of “The Banner of Victory”’, The Register, Adelaide, 30 March 1920, p. 8
‘Autograph Flag Sold for £878: Behalf of Boy Scouts’, The Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, 30 March 1920, p. 4
‘Sir Ross Smith’s Flag’, The Advertiser, Adelaide, 31 March 1920, p. 6
‘Nearly £1,000 for Boy Scout Flag’, The Register, Adelaide, 31 March 1920, p. 6

 

At ten to four on the afternoon of 10th December 1919 Capt. Ross Smith, his brother (and assistant pilot/navigator) Lt Keith Smith, and their two flight mechanics Sgt Walter Shiers and W.O. James Bennett landed their Vickers Vimy bi-plane at Darwin. The team had just completed the first ever flight from England to Australia, an epic journey of over 18,000 km., completed in less than a month.

This remarkable achievement was rewarded with knighthoods for the Smith brothers, commissions for their invaluable ground crew, a prize of £10,000 shared (equally) between the four men, and popular acclaim across the nation.

Both the Smith brothers and Walter Shiers were originally from South Australia, and when the four aviators (and their photographer Frank Hurley) reached Adelaide in March the following year, they were mobbed at Northfield aerodrome and chaired off the field by a crowd estimated at 20,000. The ensuing home-town welcome bonanza included a Vice-Regal address at Parliament House, a CivicReception, luncheons, dinners, dances and a trip to the races, as well as some splendid rhetoric from The Register: ‘The ancient Roman conquerors clattering in their chariots down the Appian way made no such dramatic and spectacular entry into the capital as the brothers Smith, descending from the clouds after their prodigious flight at the close of the greatest of all wars … soon relays of airplanes may traverse the route which the Smiths pioneered. But the honour and glory of lighting the way are their; they are of the heroic company who have brought the ends of the earth into closer contact and promoted the swifter intercourse of the whole human race.’ (1)

The occasion of the visit also provided an opportunity for some Boy Scout entrepreneurialism. The department store John Martin & Co. had made a commemorative silk flag with a picture of the Smiths’ famous ‘Old Bus’ and bearing the legend ‘London to Adelaide 1920’; this handsome pennant, mounted on a spear and signed by all four members of the flight crew, was offered for auction on 30 March top benefit the Boy scouts Association. The lunchtime auction, attended by all four flyers, raised £878/12/-. The successful bidder was well-known Adelaide philanthropist Mrs Priscilla Bickford, who evidently had an established interest in aviation; during the recent war she had donated two warplanes to the Australian Government, named the Princess Adelaide and the Mount Lofty.

Dr David Hansen

(1) ‘The Smith Boys Come Home’, The Register, Adelaide, 23 March 1920, p. 6