1. Hudson Fysh was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross during the aftermath of the war for his services to aerial warfare.
32 Facts About Hudson Fysh
1. 2.
Hudson Fysh was one of the founders of the Australian National Travel Association, now known as the Australian Tourist Commission, a member of the Royal Aeronautical and British Interplanetary society, the Institute of Transport and the Australasian Pioneers Club.
3.
Hudson Fysh died in Paddington at the age of 79, on 6 April 1974.
4.
Wilmot Hudson Fysh was born in the city of Launceston in Tasmania, Australia, on 7 January 1895.
5.
Hudson Fysh's father, Frederick Wilmot Fysh, was a merchant, while his mother, Mary, was the daughter of a famous landowner, Henry Reed.
6.
Hudson Fysh's childhood was marred by the failure of his parents' marriage and his father's business.
7.
Hudson Fysh was a cadet in the 70 Infantry Militia as a teenager, before volunteering for the Tasmanian 26th Light Horse upon the outbreak of war.
8.
Hudson Fysh made rivals in other airline entrepreneurs such as Norman Brearley, a founder of Western Australian Airways.
9.
On 5 December 1923, Hudson Fysh married Elizabeth Eleanor Dove, from Hunter River, in St James Church, Sydney.
10.
Hudson Fysh described his family as "his bulwark against the [company's] relentless pressures".
11.
On 25 August 1914, Hudson Fysh enlisted in the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade at a training camp in Pontville, Tasmania, following the declaration of the Great War.
12.
Hudson Fysh received his training in Egypt, and arrived at Gallipoli in May 1915; only two weeks after the initial Anzacs had arrived.
13.
Hudson Fysh was evacuated in December 1915, after serving for 7 months in the Australian Imperial Force.
14.
Hudson Fysh served in Palestine and Sinai, fighting in the Palestine Campaign for the 'C' Squadron of the Light Horse Regiment.
15.
Hudson Fysh was transferred from Palestine on 17 July 1916, to the 1st Light Horse Brigade, Machine Gun Squadron.
16.
In July 1917, Hudson Fysh requested a transfer from the Light Horse Brigade to the Royal Flying Corps.
17.
On 8 January 1919, Hudson Fysh was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross.
18.
Hudson Fysh has always shown great skill and gallantry on these and other occasions.
19.
On 28 February 1919, at Heliopolis, Hudson Fysh received his flying licence, graduating as a scout pilot.
20.
Hudson Fysh began a diary of maps and photography, to record their journey across Northern Australia.
21.
Hudson Fysh then suggested an alternate strip, locating one near Fannie Bay, to the north of Darwin.
22.
McGinness and Hudson Fysh headed off to Brisbane, further developing their plan along the way.
23.
Hudson Fysh proposed an idea for a "flying doctor", which would later take form in the late 1920s with the Presbyterian minister, John Flynn.
24.
Hudson Fysh later stated that "when I took the aeroplane over, the problem of my own temporary redundancy was solved".
25.
Hudson Fysh became managing director in the new formed company as well.
26.
Hudson Fysh was a co-founder of the Tasman Empire Airways Ltd in 1940, which later should become Air New Zealand.
27.
Hudson Fysh was the only manager of the company who supported this course of events.
28.
Hudson Fysh wrote The Log of the Astraea, a book on the Imperial Airways monoplane airliner Astraea and the events surrounding the airmail flights to England, which eventually led towards Qantas' partnership with the Imperial Airways.
29.
The first book in the trilogy, Qantas Rising: The Autobiography of the Flying Hudson Fysh, is an autobiography of Hudson Fysh's life, from World War I and the development of Qantas to the expansion of Qantas into Qantas Empire Airways in the mid-1930s.
30.
Also authoring a biography on Henry Reed, titled Henry Reed: Van Diemen's Land pioneer in Hobart, 1973, Hudson Fysh wrote a profile on the merchant in the Australian Dictionary of Biography in 1967.
31.
Hudson Fysh wrote a treatise on trout fishing, Round the bend in the stream, in 1968.
32.
In 2002, Hudson Fysh was inducted into the Pacific Air Travel Association's Gallery of Legends for "personal excellence, integrity and a lifetime contribution to travel and tourism", the tenth person ever to be inducted.