Sir Hudson Fysh photographs of Colombia, Europe and other locations

PXA 7776

fonds

probably 1960s

Graphic Materials, Photographs

918290

23 photographic prints - 16 x 21 cm or smaller

Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh was born on 7 January 1895 in Launceston, Tasmania. Following his schooling, he became a jackeroo and woolclasser, but at the outbreak of World War I, he served first in the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade at Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine, then later transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. Following his return to Australia in 1919, he and fellow ex-service airman, Paul McGinness, were commissioned by the Australian government to survey the Longreach-Darwin section of a route to be flown from Australia to England. On 16 November 1920, Fysh, McGinness and three Queensland graziers, Fergus McMaster, Ainslie Templeton and Alan Campbell, formed the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd (QANTAS). It established its office in Longreach in 1921 and offered taxi, ambulance and stock inspection services, as well as joy-rides. In 1923, Sir Hudson Fysh became the company's managing director and on 18 January 1934, QANTAS secured the Australian government airmail contract between Australia and England. In 1940, Fysh was a founding director of Tasman Empire Airways Ltd, helping establish the first air service to New Zealand. He married Elizabeth Eleanor Dove on 5 December 1923, with whom he had two children.

During World War II, Fysh served as squadron leader in the R.A.A.F. reserve and, in 1943, Qantas Empire Airways (QEA) flew equipment and troops in and out of Papua New Guinea. In July 1943, QEA established an air route to England via Perth and Ceylon, the longest non-stop service ever offered at twenty-seven hours. In December 1946, QEA was taken over by the Australian government and Fysh became chairman of the Qantas Wentworth Holdings hotel company in 1951. He retired in 1955 and wrote an autobiographical trilogy, Qantas Rising (1965), Qantas at War (1968) and Wings to the World (1970), amongst a number of other books. He died on 6 April 1974 in Paddington, Sydney.

Resource:
Australian Dictionary of Biography. "Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh (1895-1974)". Accessed 20 May 2024. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fysh-sir-wilmot-hudson-6263

32 photographic prints of Sir Hudson Fysh visits to the Hotel Tequendama in Bogota, Colombia and various other locations, probably in Europe and the Mediterranean, with dignitaries.

Images include a greeting at an airport and a crowd of women with the flag of France or Italy; the interior of a hotel room with a model aeroplane; a bullfight; a visit to a cemetery with headstones engraved in German; views over a coastal town; aerial shots over a rural town; Queenslander-style houses and cattle, probably in Australia; candid shots of people sitting at a table and in an armchair.

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

Transferred from Pic.Acc.3590 to PXA 7776, May 2024.

1 photographic print stamped on verso "Hotel Tequendama, Depto. de Fotografia, Bogota, Colombia".

Copy: most images appear to be reprints from originals made likely in the 1960s
Date range based on fashion depicted in photographs.