Keith Macpherson Smith
{{Short description|Australian aviator (1890–1955)}}
{{About|the Australian aviator|the Canadian singer|Keith Macpherson}}
{{Other people|Keith Smith}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox aviator
|name=Sir Keith Smith
|image=Ross and Keith Smith 1921.jpg
|image_size=
|caption= Capt. Ross (left) and Lieut. Keith (right) Smith in 1921.
|full_name=Sir Keith Macpherson Smith
|birth_date={{birth date|df=yes|1890|12|20}}
|birth_place=Adelaide
|death_date={{death date and age|df=yes|1955|12|19|1890|12|20}}
|death_place=Sydney
|nationality=Australian
|spouse=
|relatives=Sir Ross Macpherson Smith (brother)
|known_for=First flight from England to Australia
|first_flight_aircraft=
|first_flight_date=
|famous_flights=The Great Air Race
|license_date=
|license_place=
|air_force=Australian Flying Corps
|battles=World War I
|rank=Lieutenant
|awards=Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
}}
Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, KBE (20 December 1890 – 19 December 1955) was an Australian aviator, who, along with his brother, Sir Ross Macpherson Smith, Sergeant James Mallett (Jim) Bennett and Sergeant Walter (Wally) Shiers, became the first people to fly from England to Australia.
Early life
Smith's father emigrated from Scotland to Western Australia, and later became a pastoralist in South Australia. His mother was born in Western Australia, daughter of a Scottish pioneer. Both boys boarded at Queen's School, North Adelaide, and for two years at Warriston School, in Scotland.
He was medically unfit to join the First Australian Imperial Force but was accepted into the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force as a pilot between 1917 and 1919.{{Cite web |last=Corbett |first=Greg |date=2023-07-04 |title="A Wonderful Achievement" - Ross and Keith Smith's Historic Flight to Australia in a Vickers Vimy |url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/wonderful-achievement-ross-and-keith-smiths-historic-flight-australia-vickers-vimy |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=State Library Of Queensland |language=en}}{{cite web |url=https://ntl.nt.gov.au/story/great-air-race |title=Flying home from war |work=The Great Air Race |publisher=Library & Archives NT |accessdate=15 July 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924045042/https://ntl.nt.gov.au/story/great-air-race |url-status=dead }}
The Great Air Race
File:Ross and Keith Smith SLNSW FL387315.jpg
In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia. On 12 November 1919, the brothers, along with Sergeant Jim Bennett and Sergeant Wally Shiers, departed from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, England, in a Vickers Vimy aeroplane, eventually landing in Darwin, Australia on 10 December, having taken less than 28 days with an actual flying time of 135 hours. The four men shared the £10,000 prize money. Keith and Ross Smith were immediately knighted, while Shiers and Bennett were commissioned and each awarded a Bar to their Air Force Medals.{{cite AuDB |first=John |last=McCarthy |author-link= |title=Smith, Sir Keith Macpherson (1890–1955) |volume=11 |edition= |year=1988 |id2=smith-sir-keith-macpherson-8478 |access-date= }}
The aircraft is preserved in a museum at the Adelaide Airport in South Australia.
Later life
Smith planned an around-the-world flight in 1922, but abandoned it after his brother Ross was killed during a test flight. He then lived and worked in Sydney as an agent for Vickers, vice-president of British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (taken over by Qantas in 1954), and as a director of Qantas Empire Airways and Tasman Empire Airways Limited (a subsidiary of Imperial Airways which was the forerunner of British Airways).
Smith unsuccessfully stood for preselection as the Nationalist Party candidate at the 1931 East Sydney by-election.{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46597597|title=East Sydney By-Election|newspaper=Barrier Miner|location=Broken Hill, New South Wales|date=13 February 1931}}
He died on 19 December 1955.{{cite web|url=https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P003959b.htm|title=Smith, Keith Macpherson|access-date=22 March 2024}}
References
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External links
- [https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/pages/smith-brothers Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith, pioneer aviators], State Library of South Australia website including personal papers of Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith
- [http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P003959b.htm Bio entry], Encyclopaedia of Australian Science at Melbourne University
- [http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/505.html#2079 The Development of Air Transport: The Trail Blazers], Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
- [http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/507.html#2094 The Services], Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110706104729/http://www.hotcourses.com.au/australia/scholarships/sir-ross-and-sir-keith-smith-civil-aviation-scholarships-university-of-south-australia/2051-72237-all/scholarship.html Scholarships]
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Category:Military personnel from South Australia
Category:Royal Flying Corps soldiers
Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War I
Category:Royal Air Force airmen
Category:People educated at Warriston School
Category:Australian test pilots
Category:Australian military personnel of World War I
Category:Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire