Horace Brinsmead

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Horace Clowes Brinsmead (born February 2, 1883 in Hampstead (London) , † March 11, 1934 in Melbourne ) was between 1920 and 1931 the responsible officer for civil aviation in Australia (Controller of Civil Aviation).

He emigrated to Australia at the age of 20, where he settled in northern Queensland . After initial failures, he moved to Tonga . After the outbreak of World War I , he joined the Australian Imperial Force as a volunteer in December 1914 . His unit was first deployed to Gallipoli , then he fought at Pozières , where he was wounded. In England he attended an officer training course, joined the Australian Flying Corps and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1919 . On the part of the British delegation, he took part in the peace conference in Paris .

Upon his return to Australia, Brinsmead was named Australia's first chief of civil aviation supervision. His area of ​​responsibility included the drafting of air traffic laws as well as the establishment of pilot training, airports and runways as well as aviation security. His "authority" was rather small, initially with eight employees. His deputy was the surveyor and pilot Edgar Johnston . Brinsmead's work in building a structured aviation system has been widely recognized as efficient.

When Brinsmead traveled to London in December 1931 to negotiate the establishment of a permanent airmail route, his plane crashed after taking off from Alor Setar Airport in Malaysia . There were no casualties, Brinsmead only sustained minor wounds. Instead of waiting for a replacement aircraft, Brinsmead took a KLM machine and traveled on with it. The plane crashed immediately after taking off from Don Muang near Bangkok . There were five dead, Brinsmead was seriously injured and was henceforth unable to work. Edgar Johnston continued his office (initially only provisionally), Brinsmead died two years later in Melbourne.

Honors

  • After 1947, the Australian line Qantas named a series of Lockheed Constellation machines after aviation pioneers, one of them after Brinsmead in 1951.
  • In his book about Australia, Breakfast with Kangaroos , published in 2000, the author Bill Bryson describes the story of Brinsmead, but erroneously calls him Harold C. Brinsmead . It was ironic that Brinsmead made his last trip to demonstrate the reliability of air travel.

References and sources

  1. ↑ Bill Bryson, Breakfast with Kangaroos. Australian adventures. Goldmann, 2001. (Original: Down Under , 2000)
personal data
SURNAME Brinsmead, Horace
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brinsmead, Horace Clowes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Civil Aviation Officer in Australia
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead (London)
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1934
Place of death Melbourne