first

Wow, that's my grandfather who I never knew

Unfortunately the wrong details have been assigned to Private Robinson (my maternal great grandfather) See corrected details below; Private Joseph William Robinson (1885-1917) Joseph was born on 16 November 1886 in Preston near Hedon, East Yorkshire He was the son of William and Sarah Annie (nee Cherry) Robinson now living at no. 24 St. Andrew Street, Beverley. He was married to Martha Ann Woodger and they had three children. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Previously to the war he had worked as a bricklayer and a Police constable. Joseph left his wife and family for the last time on 18th April 1917 for active service and was posted to Alexandria but within 17 days he was killed when the troop ship “Transylvania” was torpedoed and sunk off Cape Vado by the German U-boat U63. His body was not found but he and follow comrades are commemorated at the Savona Memorial in Italy.

I gather this pic was taken at Mascot aerodrome, in Sydney, at the time of Charles Kingsford Smith etc’s flight to New Zealand in January 1933. Kingsford Smith etc departed from Mascot on 10th January…then flew south to Seven-Mile Beach at Gerringong to be refuelled…the following day they flew across the Tasman Sea to New Plymouth, on NZ's north island. In this pic we see the Southern Cross with the port and starboard engine exhaust pipes passing above the wing…this was a new configuration that had evidently been made prior to this flight…

Some of the other pics in this SLNSW series were also taken on this occasion…several were published in the newspapers at the time, in the Labor Daily and the Sun, etc…

The crew comprised Charles Kingsford Smith, P.G. ‘Bill’ Taylor (co-pilot and navigator), John Stannage (radio operator)…they were accompanied by journalist Jack Percival, who covered the flight for the Sun, etc…and New Plymouth Aero Club secretary Stan Nielson…

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228911689 - the Sun, 9th January, 1933…pic of the crew, etc…

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228902707 - the Sun, 10th January, 1933…pics taken at Mascot pre the departure for Gerringong, etc

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228907246 - the Sun, 11th January, 1933…Jack Percival’s account of the flight…

Pics 3 & 4 in this series show, L-R: Bill Taylor (co-pilot and navigator), Charles Kingsford Smith, John Stannage (radio operator), Stan Nielson (secretary New Plymouth aero Club), Jack Percival (journalist)

Pics 6 & 7 in this series include Kingsford Smith's mother and brother and also Anton den Hertog, then managing director of Philips Australia, who supplied the radio equipment and the landing light which was installed on the Southern Cross for the flight…I think he also appears in pics 21-22…

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259162117 - the Preston Mail, 28th January, 1933…den Hertog can be identified via the captions here…

Kingsford Smith made the first flight between Australia and New Zealand in September 1928 with Charles Ulm (co-pilot), Hal Litchfield (navigator), and Tom McWilliams (wireless operator)…they made the return flight in October 1928…which was the first flight from New Zealand to Australia...

As far as I know, as of January 1933, the only other successful trans-Tasman flights had been made by Guy Menzies, who’d made a solo flight from Sydney in January 1931 (without gaining prior approval form the Commonwealth aviation authorities)…and Francis Chichester, who’d flown from New Zealand to Australia via Lord Howe Island in April - June 1931 (which included a lengthy delay at Lord Howe Island to repair damage)…

In January 1928 New Zealand aviators John Moncrieff and George Hood made an ill-fated attempt to fly from Sydney to New Zealand in a Ryan B-1 Brougham monoplane…the same make of aircraft that Charles Lindberg had used to make his 1927 flight from Paris to New York…Moncreiff and Hood were in the air for some 12 hours before radio signals from the aircraft ceased…the general consensus has been that they either landed or crashed into the sea…but there has been speculation that they might have reached New Zealand, but crashed…to date no trace of the aircraft has been found…