Clyde Fenton

Fenton was born in Warrnambool, Victoria in 1901 and graduated as a medical doctor in 1925 from Melbourne University. In 1927 Fenton attempted to drive across Australia in record time with his brother Frederick but this attempt was unsuccessful as a car accident in South Australia ended their attempt. Soon after Fenton travelled to Wyndham, Western Australia, where he worked as a district medical officer. While there he bought himself a small single-engine, single-seater aircraft (which he assembled himself) and taught himself to fly. Soon after he crashed the plane and, when sailing home to Melbourne, was persuaded by Cecil Cook to stay in Darwin for five months as a doctor.

He then joined the Royal Air Force in England in October 1927, where he gained navigation qualifications, however he resigned soon after in February 1930 after disputes over regulations. In England Fenton also had a short lived marriage to Eve Ryan-Gallacher which ended in divorce.

Fenton had earned his pilot's licence with a goal to join the Royal Flying Doctor Service, but the founder, Reverend John Flynn, had a policy of not using doctors as pilots. As a result, Fenton privately raised money for an aircraft, and in March 1934 arrived in Katherine as the Government Medical Officer. He started an aerial ambulance rescue service which grew into the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service.

Calls for medical assistance came through the two RFDS stations at Cloncurry and Wyndham, and were relayed by telegram. Fenton utilised primitive bush strips and runways to pick up the patients and return them to Katherine for medical treatment. With no navigational equipment or radios, landings were made on strips lit by kerosene flares or car lights, and only the railway lines and the Katherine River were available to estimate his position.

To the Civil Aviation Department Fenton was a disaster, but to the people of the Top End, he was a hero. On 14 May 1935 Fenton was fined £20 for "endangering public safety" by swooping low over the Star Theatre, Darwin several times, including once between "the front of the circle and the screen".{{cite news |date=14 May 1935 |title=FINED £20 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article81247538 |accessdate=2 February 2024 |newspaper=The Northern Miner |location=Queensland, Australia |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1936 he made an unsanctioned flight to China after hearing of his sister's death in child-birth there, he flew there in a small open aircraft to bring his mother home.{{Cite news |date=2022-08-12 |title=Tales from the cockpit of one of Australia's 'original' flying doctors |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-13/nt-clyde-fenton/101303864 |access-date=2024-02-02 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}{{cite news |date=30 May 1940 |title=Colorful Exploits Of Dr.Clyde Fenton |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48350343 |accessdate=2 February 2024 |newspaper=Barrier Miner |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=LIII |issue=15,818}}

On 14 May 1940 he received his call up for the RAAF by telegram. He was eventually based at Manbulloo airstrip near Katherine, from where he made many emergency medical flights; during this period he worked closely with Olive O'Keeffe a nurse working at the Katherine Hospital.{{Cite book |last=Cook |first=Penny |title=Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography |publisher=Charles Darwin University Press |year=2008 |isbn=9780980457810 |edition=Rev |location=Darwin |pages=40–441 |chapter=Olive O'Keeffe (Keefie) nee Harvey (1907 - 1988)}} In August 1942 the No 6 Communications Flight was formed with Flight Lieutenant Fenton in command; this was known as `Fenton’s Flying Freighters’. This unit delivered mail and food supplies to army and RAAF outposts, as far afield as the Wessel Islands. The unit was at various times based at the Ross Smith Aerodrome in Darwin, and at the Batchelor airstrip.

Fenton left the Territory after the war and begun working for the Commonwealth Department of Health, initially in Brisbane. While there he wrote Flying Doctor (1947).{{Citation |author1=Fenton, Clyde |title=Flying doctor |publication-date=1947 |edition=[1st ed.] |publisher=Georgian House |isbn=978-0-7245-0531-9}} He married Sheila Ethyl Young, a nurse and widow, in Sydney on 10 October 1949 and they divorced in October 1959. He transferred to Melbourne in 1949 and on 29 March 1963 he married Lavinia Florence Catalano. He retired from medicine in March 1966 and died on 27 February 1982.{{cite AuDB |first=Brian |last=Reid |title=Fenton, Clyde Cornwall (1901–1982) |volume=17 |year=2007 |id2=fenton-clyde-cornwall-12483 }}

One of the planes he flew, a Gipsy Moth, is on display at the Fenton Hangar at the Katherine Historical Society Precinct. His name was also given to a World War II airstrip, Fenton Airfield near Hayes Creek, and is remembered by the Clyde Fenton Primary School in Katherine.{{cite web |author= |title=Clyde Fenton Primary School: History |url=https://cfs.nt.edu.au/about-us/history |access-date=13 September 2019 |website=cfs.nt.edu.au}}{{Cite web |title=Fenton Airfield |url=https://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/heritageregister/f?p=103:303::::NO:P303_PLACE_ID:29# |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=NT Heritage Register}}

• Oswald Watt Gold Medal, an Australian aviation award.

• Clyde Fenton Primary School, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
• Fenton Airfield, World War II airfield in the Northern Territory, Australia
• Clyde Fenton Hangar, Katherine Historical Society Precinct, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia

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• {{Cite web|title=Attractions|url=http://www.northerngateway.com.au/attractions/Katherine_region.htm|publisher=Northern Gateway|access-date=29 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014115515/http://www.northerngateway.com.au/attractions/Katherine_region.htm|archive-date=14 October 2009|url-status=dead}}

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Category:1901 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:Australian emergency physicians

Category:Australian World War II pilots

Category:Aviation pioneers

Category:History of the Northern Territory

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People educated at Xavier College

Category:People from Warrnambool

Category:Royal Air Force officers

Category:Royal Australian Air Force officers

Category:Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II

Category:University of Melbourne alumni

Category:Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia people

Category:Military personnel from Victoria (state)