Plaque at Parafield Airport.
In Memory of Charles James (Jimmie) Melrose, Aviator 1913 – 1936 ‘He was born to fly’.
Jimmy Melrose took flying lessons at Parafield and gained his pilot’s licence at age 19.
In August 1934, when he was aged 20, Jimmy flew 12,875km solo around Australia, reducing the previous record by almost two days, to five days, 10 hours, 57 minutes.
On his twenty-first birthday he left Parafield in his Puss Moth for England, reaching Croydon in a record eight days, nine hours.
Tragically, on 3 July 1936, aged 22, Jimmy died on a charter flight from Melbourne to Darwin when his Heston Phoenix broke up over South Melton, Victoria in turbulent conditions.
His death sent shock waves around the world as people mourned their chivalrous young knight of the air.”
Jimmy Melrose was the youngest competitor in the 1934 MacRobertson Trophy London-Melbourne air race in October 1934 and the only Australian to finish the race. He made the record solo flight in 8 days and 9 hours coming third on handicap.
The event was held in 1934: dreamt up by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Harold Smith to celebrate Victoria’s centenary. It was sponsored by the Melbourne chocolate manufacturer Sir MacPherson Robertson, to test the feasibility of scheduled air services between Europe and Australia.
In 1936 Melrose was killed when his Heston Phoenix monoplane VH–AJM disintegrated in mid air at Melton South, Victoria. The tragedy was reported world-wide in the media at the time.
*Jimmy Melrose’s memorial is located on the edge of the Stirling Centenary Oval and was handed over to the District Council of Stirling. There was an infantile paralysis epidemic at the time and an unveiling was considered unwise.
It was erected by public subscription: Melrose was once a resident of the district. Of the £101 cost, £22 was raised by children of the following schools Stirling East, Bridgewater, Aldgate, Mylor, Scotts Creek, Heathfield, Upper Sturt and Crafers. [Ref: Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser 10-3-1938]
*Melrose Killed when Plane Crashes
MACHINE BURST INTO FRAGMENTS
Was on flight to Darwin
MR A G CAMPBELL ALSO A VICTIM
Charles James Melrose, 22, of Glenelg, Australia’s most popular airman, and Alexander George Campbell, 47 of Brighton, Victoria, who had a distinguished career as a soldier and as a mining engineer, were killed instantly when Melrose’s Heston Phoenix high-wing monoplane broke to pieces in dense clouds and crashed at South Melton, Victoria on Sunday morning.
They were on their way from Melbourne to Parafield on the stage of a flight to Darwin. Miss Lily Melrose, a cousin of the aviator, was about to leave Adelaide for the flying field to join the fliers when she received news of the fatality.
The wreckage was found over an area of two square miles, and the bodies of the two men were 400 yards apart.
Warm tributes were paid to the young airman by the Prime Minister (Mr Lyons), and by the Premier (Mr Butler), who recently took the air for the first time with Melrose as his pilot.
Melrose's place in the affection of South Australians was strikingly evidenced when the news was received. Mention of his death was made in many churches, and the Government immediately decided to arrange for a State funeral, subject to the approval of Mrs Melrose.
The tragedy of the disaster was increased by the fact that Mr Campbell had intended originally to go to Adelaide by train and join Mr Melrose there. Mr Melrose, however, flew his mother to Melbourne on Thursday for a holiday visit and then waited to fly Mr Campbell to Adelaide.
Mr Campbell had chartered Mr Melrose's machine on behalf of a syndicate of Melbourne and Adelaide business men. He intended to fly to Darwin, where he was to inspect gold mining areas at Pine Creek. He expected to be away for between 10 and 14 days.
The party was to comprise Miss Lily Melrose, cousin of Mr Melrose, and Mr O V Roberts, both of Adelaide, who intended to make the flight an opportunity for a holiday. Mr J Smith Roberts, a mining expert, was to be picked up at Tennant Creek.
Mrs Melrose went to the scene of tragedy and she wished to see her son's body at the City Morgue, but she was suffering from such prostration that it was considered inadvisable for her to do so.
The body was identified by the manager of the Oriental Hotel.
A watch which Mr Melrose was wearing had stopped at 8.34 am, indicating the time of the crash. A police wireless patrol prevented the souveniring of fragments from the main wreckage.
On the way to the Essendon aerodrome Mr Melrose and Mr Campbell were in high spirits, joking and discussing the projected flight to Darwin.
Mr Campbell had travelled in a taxi cab from his home in Brighton, and joined Mr Melrose at the Oriental Hotel, Collins street.
Light rain was sweeping over the aerodrome when they arrived, and Mr R Hart, of the Hart Aircraft Service Pty, Ltd, in whose hangar Mr Melrose had left his plane, advised Mr Melrose not to fly because of the inclement weather.
Mr Melrose had on Saturday postponed his flight because of the bad flying conditions, and when he saw a break in the clouds this morning he decided to make the flight, as he wished to reach Oodnadatta before night. He told Mr Hart that he expected to reach Port Augusta or Adelaide in three hours by flying at a height of 3,000 feet above the clouds.
Ascending toward a patch of clear sky, the machine reached a height of about 2,500 feet before it passed out of sight of the party on the aerodrome. Apparently Mr Melrose experienced difficulty in finding the break in the clouds, because the time which the machine took to travel the 15 miles to South Melton - 24 minutes - indicates that he spent some time searching for a clear sky.
Residents of South Melton saw the machine emerge from low-lying clouds above the railway station. Almost immediately there was a loud roar and many fragments were seen falling from the machine and drifting in the wind.
The engine and most of the fuselage spun at a steep angle toward the ground, while the starboard wing drifted in another direction towards the Toolern Creek, and hundreds of smaller fragments were carried by the wind to paddocks near the Ballarat road, which is about a mile and a half from the scene of the crash.
The two occupants were hurled out of the machine, but so many fragments were falling that none of the residents was certain of having seen them fall.
Mr Melrose's body was found on the southern end of the gorge of the Toolern Creek, about 50 yards from the engine, and the remnants of the fuselage, while Mr Campbell's body was found about 400 yards away in a paddock on the north side of the gorge. Both men had been killed instantly.
The two petrol tanks were found on different sides of the gorge. Tools and luggage were on the cliffs or in the flooded creek, and innumerable pieces of wood and fabric were scattered over an area of nearly two square miles to the north of the creek.
The desperate thoughts which must have passed through the minds of the victims in the few seconds before the crash were indicated by the condition of the safety belts. The pin had been drawn to release one safety belt, but in the other belt the pin was bent but still in the socket.
Apparently Mr Campbell had undone his belt so that, if he survived the crash, he could crawl from the machine.
Mr Melrose, who was probably struggling with the controls, apparently did not have time to withdraw the pin of his belt, consequently Mr Campbell was hurled further from the plane than Mr Melrose.
A close examination of the area over which the wreckage was strewn was made by the Air Accidents Investigation Committee soon after the tragedy.
The committee has no theory of the cause of the crash at present, but it is understood that it has reached several interesting conclusions.
From the range and position of the fragments it is considered possible that the machine disintegrated while it was in a wide spin with the engine running. If the spin was fast enough the strain might have caused the machine to collapse.
Because the port wing was found much farther from the engine and fuselage than the starboard wing, it is considered probable that the port wing was the first to crumple. The machine would then have become wholly out of control, and the increased strain would have quickly caused the collapse of the other wing, the tailplane, and other light parts of the machine.
The breaking up of the machine was described by Mr. Edward Wickham, of Melton South, who was gathering wood in the back yard of his home.
“For some time I heard the drone of an aeroplane in the clouds,' he said, 'but I could not see it. The clouds were low and a strong southerly wind was driving misty rain. Suddenly there was a roar and the plane came spinning out of the clouds. Just as it came into full view, the machine appeared to burst into fragments and the roar stopped.
“The engine and fuselage hurtled at a fairly steep angle towards the ground, but the other fragments drifted quite slowly with the wind and fell in the paddocks between the Toolern Creek and the Ballarat Road.
“With three other residents, I ran over the paddocks. We lifted the refuse expecting to find someone beneath, but no one was there. Then we searched among the rocks at the edge of the gorge and we found Mr Melrose lying shockingly injured on two flat rocks, just below the top of the cliff about 50 yards from the wreckage. Mr Campbell's body was then found on the other side of the gorge.”
Although Mr Campbell had flown many miles on mining business, his wife did not like his flying, and had tried to dissuade him from continuing it. He insured his life for £2,000 for the period of the flight to Darwin.
“I regret exceedingly to learn that yet another of Australia's great airmen has passed away,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Lyons).
“In his brief flying career, Melrose won considerable fame,” continued Mr Lyons. “Not the least of his achievements was his skilful search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith last year. Australia loses a chivalrous young knight of the air whom it can ill afford to lose.
“The sympathy of all the Australian people will, I feel sure, go to his devoted mother.”
Before the evensong service at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, the organist (Dr A E Floyd) extemporised in the form of a threnody.
The Precentor (Rev Oliver Hole) announced that, in view of the sudden and tragic death of a brave young airman, the anthem had been changed. The choir sang the Memorial Anthem by Sir George Elvey from the Book of Wisdom:— “The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God: in the sight of the unwise they seem to die, but they are in peace.” [Ref: Chronicle (Adelaide) Thursday 9 July 1936]
* MELROSE'S MEMORY HONOURED
Crowds Attend Mourning Services In Two Cathedrals
Moving tributes were paid in Melbourne and Adelaide yesterday to the memory of Mr C J Melrose, who was killed when his plane crashed at South Melton, Victoria, on Sunday. Melrose's body was cremated at the necropolis, Springvale. Melbourne, yesterday afternoon.
The ceremony was preceded by a simple service in St Paul's Cathedral, which was crowded. The Archbishop of Melbourne (Dr Head), in his address, referred to "this boy, who was so wonderfully young and so attractive in personality, that he can only be called just lovable”.
Adelaide mourned the loss of Melrose at a special memorial service in St Peter's Cathedral which, at the request of the aviator's mother, synchronised with the funeral service in Melbourne.
As the crowds left the Cathedral after an inspiring address by the Bishop of Adelaide (Dr Thomas), three Royal Aero Club machines soared overhead in a last tribute to the club's distinguished member.
Tributes were paid and the sittings of both Houses of Parliament were suspended, the Assembly rising until the evening. [Ref: Advertiser (Adelaide), Wednesday 8 July 1936]
*LONDON, July 5
The news of the death of Melrose has caused sorrow in aviation circles. Mr Pemberton Billing, the uncle of Melrose, said:— “What a rotten shame. Jimmie was a protege of mine, and always stayed with me. I do not know what his mother will do now. When Jimmie was here, his thoughts were always with his mother, in Adelaide”.
The Agent-General for South Australia (Mr McCann) who bade farewell to Melrose when he flew to Australia in April, says:— “I am dreadfully sorry. He was one of the most charming men it was possible to meet”. [Ref: Chronicle 9-7-1936]
*SIMPLE SERVICE IN MELBOURNE
St Pauls Cathedral Crowded July 7
Simplicity marked James Melrose's funeral today. There was no display, the only uniform to be seen being that worn by the officer representing the Air Board.
Long before the service in St Paul's Cathedral was timed to begin, all the available pews were occupied, and knots of silent people gathered in Flinders street.
Inside the Cathedral, the coffin of dark wood rested on a bier of flowers in the choir. Placed on it were only two wreaths, one of laurels from the dead airman's mother, and the other of purple flowers and dark green leaves, inscribed simply ''From Rosebank." [Rosebank has been the station home of Mr Melrose's family in South Australia for nearly a century.]
"We have come together today in very sad circumstances,” Archbishop Head said. "Your first thought will be of sadness and terribleness of such an event, and how frightful it is that so precious a life should have been cut off so suddenly.
After another hymn, the blessing was pronounced by Archbishop Head from the altar, and the congregation stood while Beethoven's "Funeral March on the Death of a Hero" was played.
Then the coffin was carried along the aisle down which Melrose had walked on the day he finished the Centenary air race to Evensong. The people in the crowded street stood bareheaded and silent. Through the suburbs, where streets were lined by children from the schools, the procession passed, and along the Prince's Highway to Springvale. Six planes circled overhead.
The service was brief. The last prayers were offered by Archbishop Head.
The chief mourners were Mr Melrose's mother and his cousins, Mr Melrose MP, and Mrs Melrose, and Miss L M Melrose, all of South Australia, and Mr Brian and Mr F Hickling, of Melbourne (second cousins).
Those who attended included Mr Schofield MHR (representing the Prime Minister and Commonwealth Government). Mr Hyland MLA, and Major H A F Wilkinson (representing the Premier and State Government), Mr McIntosh (South Australian Commissioner of Crown Lands and Minister of Repatriation), and Mr Young MLC, (representing the Premier and Government of South Australia), Mr J D Malcolm (NZ), Mr F Emerson (Queensland), Mr L F Bruce (Tasmania), Flight-Lieutenant C S Wiggins (Air Board), Mr R Bennett (Lord Mayor of Melbourne), Mr J W Collins (Australian Aerial Medical Services), Mr B Bremner (Australian Broadcasting Commission), and Mr A P Bevan (Elder, Smith & Co, Ltd, Adelaide).
The pallbearers were the Director-General of Civil Aviation (Captain E C Johnston). Mr T P Manifold (the Aero Clubs of Australia), Mr F Penny (Shell Company of Australia), Mr G R Lamprell (South Australian Government representative), Mr E H Chaseing (Holyman’s Airways), and Mr R Hart.
Mr Melrose MP, who is remaining in Melbourne with Mrs James Melrose, said tonight that she had no plans for the future.
It had been arranged, he said, that she should go to Sydney and wait there for her son to join her after his flight to Darwin, but it was now impossible to say what her movements would be or her plans for the future. In the meantime, she would remain in Melbourne.
At the funeral, Mrs Melrose wore a brown costume, a fur, and a green hat with a black armband. She thought that her son would have preferred that she wear the colours in which he liked her best.
Telegrams were received from persons in all parts of the world, including the Governor-General (Lord Gowrie) and Lady Gowrie, the Governor of South Australia (Sir Winston Dugan), the Prime Minister (Mr Lyons), and the Minister for Health (Mr Hughes). [Ref: Advertiser (Adelaide) Wednesday 8 July 1936:
* On his return today from Melbourne, where he represented the State at the memorial service in St Paul's Cathedral to the late Mr C J Melrose, the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr McIntosh) said that Melbourne's sorrow was a magnificent tribute to a wonderfully beloved young hero.
"Victoria had taken him to its heart equally with South Australia," said the Minister. "His fame in Melbourne was as renowned as in Adelaide. and his memory as dearly cherished”.
Mr McIntosh said that the cathedral was crowded long before the time for the commencement of the service, and thousands, unable to gain admission, congregated outside.
The route from the cathedral to the crematorium, a distance of 16 miles, was lined the whole way by thousands of citizens, who stood with heads bowed in final homage to a young hero, triumphant even in death.
The service at the crematorium, said Mr. McIntosh, was equally impressive as at the cathedral, and the wonderful fortitude and courage displayed by Mrs Melrose at both ceremonies provided an example and inspiration to all who mourned with her. There would be some solace for her in the wonderful tributes paid by the people to the memory of her son.
Combined with the deep sorrow for Mrs Melrose. there was a deep sympathy for Mrs A G Campbell and her young family in the death of Colonel Campbell, who was killed with Melrose. [Ref: News (Adelaide) 8-7-1936]
*Funeral of Mr A G Campbell
There were impressive scenes at the funeral of Mr Campbell.
Officers and men of the 8th Battalion, with whom Mr Campbell served in the Great War, and of the 39th Battalion, of which until recently he was Lieutenant-Colonel commanding, paid many touching tributes to his memory.
Every returned soldier present filed past the open grave and dropped his poppy on to the coffin, after which the whole gathering stood to attention as “Last Post” was sounded. [Ref: Chronicle 9-7-1936]
**From an article by Craig Cook, published in the Advertiser (Adelaide) 13 September 2013 –
The long lost possessions of world famous aviator Jimmy Melrose were recently discovered in Victoria. Among the items are his white leather flying helmet and documents signed by the aviator.
The possessions were given by his mother to Clive Hamer, who had dinner with Melrose the night before his last flight, and asked him to pack and store them. She never asked for their return. The artefacts were then passed on as part of the estate of a deceased relative, ending up with Wayne and Judy Perry of Victoria. Subsequently they were given to the South Australian Aviation Museum.
There also is a permanent exhibition of Melrose’s achievements at the Bay Discovery Centre in Glenelg. It is suitably entitled, Australia’s Forgotten Hero.
Such was Melrose’s fame at the time of his death the then state government of Sir Richard Butler considered a proposal to build him a memorial, to “fly over the city”, on Montefiore Hill. The idea was finally scrapped when the statue of Colonel Light, then situated in Victoria Square, was moved to the hill instead.
In the first clear sign the local hero’s story was already fading from history, Melrose failed to be recognised among the initial 170 “SA Greats”, that includes his uncle, Sir John Melrose, to have their name on a bronze plaque on the Jubilee 150 Walkway.
The Walkway, commissioned as part of the celebrations commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the state, was established along North Terrace in 1986. Fellow air pioneers, Sir Ross and Keith Smith are honoured but, despite the year being the 50th anniversary of Jimmy’s death, he missed out.
The greater irony is that Melrose had agreed to be a major attraction at the 100th anniversary of the founding of South Australia, distributing flyers in the lead-up and flying over Adelaide on the anniversary day, December 28, 1936. He died five months before the event.
An only child from a prosperous family, Jimmy Melrose grew-up with his mother, Hilda, in a grand house, on the Glenelg South esplanade. His prominent pastoralist father, James, had died in 1922 when his son was aged nine.
Throughout his life he had a fascination with the number 13, never regarding it as unlucky. It was both the date and year of his birth and the number of his imposing home, demolished in 1969.
A natural athlete, he exercised daily including a morning swim from the beach just outside his home. He was a fanatical early riser, neither smoked nor drank alcohol, and a devotee of the “Oslo lunch” that consisted of a wholemeal bread sandwich filled with cheese and salad, a glass of milk and an apple or other seasonal fruit.
While still a student at St Peter’s School he took flying lessons with the (Royal) Aero Club of South Australia at Parafield, gaining his licence at 19. As reward, his mother bought him his own plane, a DeH Puss Moth, which he named My Hildergarde, deliberately using 13 letters, in her honour.
In August 1934, aged 20, he flew 12,875km solo around Australia, reducing the previous record by almost two days, to five days, 10 hours, 57 minutes.
On his twenty-first birthday he left Parafield in his beloved Puss Moth for England, reaching Croydon in a record eight days, nine hours.
He became a global sensation, as the youngest entrant and only solo competitor, coming third, in the 1934 Centenary Air Race from England to Australia.
A dedicated diarist, he recorded the scenes as he left England: “Saturday 20 October 1934, the start of the greatest air race the world had ever seen. 60,000 people came around the aerodrome at Mildenhall at dawn. Thrilling is not the word: we raced across the countryside east of London, the Thames, the Channel off Dover. I shall never forget it!”
Soon after returning to Australia [After his search for the missing Sir Charles Kingsford Smith], and in his first major accident, Melrose crashed his Percival Gull, used in the search for Smith, at Penrose in New South Wales. Recovering quickly from severe injuries he sailed to England and flew back in a five-seater Heston Phoenix he intended to use to start the nation’s first flying taxi service.
An incredible crowd of 8000 assembled in Adelaide on Anzac Day, 1936, to greet him on his return. Just six weeks later he was dead.
In 1968, when his mother died, Jimmy Melrose’s ashes were buried with her at the North Road Anglican cemetery at Nailsworth, north of Adelaide.
There are some commemorations to the life and times of Jimmy Melrose. The suburbs of Melrose Park in South Australia and New South Wales, a look-out tower at the Glenelg Surf Life-Saving Club, Jimmy Melrose Park on the Glenelg foreshore and James Melrose Road bordering Adelaide airport are all named after him.
Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, where the 1934 Air Race began, has Charles Melrose Close and there is a simple inscribed cairn close to the fatal crash-site at Melton South.
