Norman Brearley

Sir Norman Brearley, CBE, DSO, MC, AFC, FRAeS (22 December 1890 – 9 June 1989) was a commercial and military pilot and one of the pioneers of the airline industry within Australia.

Sir Norman Brearley
Norman Brearley in the 1920s
Born(1890-12-22)22 December 1890
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Died9 June 1989(1989-06-09) (aged 98)
NationalityAustralian
OccupationPilot
TitleSir
Bust of Brearley at Perth Airport by sculptor Gerard Darwin

Early life

Born in Geelong, Victoria on 22 December 1890, Brearley moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1906.[1][2]

Aviation career

First World War

In April 1915, after undertaking a 5-year apprenticeship as a mechanic, Brearley worked his way to the United Kingdom and subsequently enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps and trained as a pilot.[3] On the Western Front, He was posted initially to No. 6 Squadron, but transferred to No. 29 Squadron, where he flew Airco DH.2 scouts (including patrols flown alongside Sergeant James McCudden).[2] However, in November 1916 he was shot down and badly wounded, with bullets perforating both lungs: he landed in no man's land, but managed to crawl back to Allied lines.[2][4] He returned to Western Australia to recover.[3] He subsequently returned to Britain where he became a flying instructor, initially at Gosport and then as commander of the school of special flying at Lilbourne.[2][4]

Post-war

Following the end of hostilities, Brearley bought two Avro 504 aircraft (plus a spare engine), which he had shipped to Australia.[2] In 1921, he founded Western Australian Airways Ltd., based at Geraldton.[1] In the same year, he was issued with Australia's first civil pilot's licence, under the 1921 Air Navigation Regulations.[1] Despite his holding licence No. 2, licence No. 1 was not issued until the 1930s in honour of Amy Johnson's record flight from London to Australia.[1]

In 1927, Brearley opened the Perth Flying School at Maylands. He retired from commercial aviation in 1936 when he merged his airline with Australian National Airways.[3]

Later life

Brearley later served with the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II, commanding No. 4 Service Flying Training School at Geraldton from October 1942 to March 1944.[1][4]

Brearley was knighted in 1971. He died on 9 June 1989.[1][4]

Personal life

Brearley married Violet Claremont Stubbs in Perth on 5 July 1917, when he was recovering from his injuries. She died in 1982, aged 85. The couple had a son and a daughter.[2][4]

References
  1. "Brearley Pilot's Licences, Treasures of the Battye Library". State Library of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2007.
  2. Tucker 1990.
  3. "Australia's First Airline Service". Spirits of Ansett. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2007.
  4. Bunbury 2007.

Further reading
  • Brearley, Sir Norman; Mayman, Ted (1971). Australian Aviator. Adelaide: Rigby. ISBN 0-85179-227-8.
  • Bunbury, Bill (2007). "Brearley, Sir Norman (1890–1989)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  • Mayman, Ted (1979). "Sir Norman Brearley, the aviator". In Hunt, Lyall (ed.). Westralian Portraits. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press. pp. 193–198. ISBN 0-85564-157-6.
  • Tucker, Stuart (March 1990). "Sir Norman Brearley CBE, DSO, MC, AFC, FRAeS [obituary]". Cross and Cockade International. 21 (1): 53–54.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.