Hudson Fysh - WikiHQ

Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh (7 January 18956 April 1974) was an Australian aviator and businessman. A founder of the Australian airline company Qantas, Fysh was born in Launceston, Tasmania. Serving in the Battle of Gallipoli and Palestine Campaign as a lieutenant of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, Fysh later became an observer and gunner to Paul McGinness in the AFC. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross during the aftermath of the war for his services to aerial warfare.

Fysh, alongside Paul McGinness and Sir Fergus McMaster started Qantas in 1920. Despite government ownership, Fysh became managing director and chairman of Qantas. A committee member of the International Air Transport Association, he became president of the organisation in 1960. He was also 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. His father, Frederick Wilmot Fysh, was a merchant, while his mother, Mary (née Reed), was the daughter of a famous landowner, Henry Reed. Fysh was the oldest of five siblings; Hudson, Henry, Margaret, Mary and Graham. He was also the great-nephew of Sir Philip Fysh. Living in St Leonards—a suburb of Launceston—until 1914, he enlisted in the Light Horse upon the start of World War I.

Educated at Launceston and Geelong grammar schools, After the foundation of Qantas, Fysh, being a poor student at school, tried to make up for his lack of training by studying economics and taking a course in pelmanism. After his retirement from Qantas, Fysh received an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering (EngD), in a commemoration ceremony from the University of Tasmania, in 1971.

Described as a man of "great political acumen" and having "a hard head for business", Fysh had a reputation as a stern, uncompromising taskmaster. This contrasted against his "shy, quiet" nature; he described himself as "painfully shy...as a child feeling looked down on, sensitive, and socially lost." Fysh felt these feelings never left him, being "ill at ease with fame or publicity." Described as single-minded in many instances, his insistence on using a D.H.86 (De Havilland Express 86) lead to a bitter clash and eventual fall-out between Fysh and Sir Gordon Taylor.

On 5 December 1923, Fysh married Elizabeth Eleanor ("Nell") Dove, from Hunter River, in St James Church, Sydney. They had a son and daughter, John Hudson Fysh and Wendy Elizabeth Fysh, both born in Longreach, Queensland. Fysh described his family as "his bulwark against the [company's] relentless pressures" Fysh was evacuated in December 1915, after serving for 7 months in the Australian Imperial Force. and later to Lieutenant Paul McGinness. against German and Turkish aircraft in the Middle Eastern campaigns, Fysh was an observer ace, shooting down 5 enemy aircraft. On 8 January 1919, Fysh was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross. The award was gazetted in the London Gazette and the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 8 February 1919 and 23 May 1919 respectively.

thumb|right|Major Sydney Addison and Hudson Fysh, in Palestine

His citation read:

Career

Survey of the Great Air Race

thumb|right|Lieutenant Wilmot Hudson Fysh standing in front of a [[Nieuport Scout aircraft]]

On 28 February 1919, at Heliopolis, Fysh received his flying licence, graduating as a scout pilot. In March 1919, an announcement was made by the Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes, of a Great Air Race for the "first successful flight to Australia from Great Britain in a machine manned by Australians". The prize money was £A10,000 (or £8,000 sterling), under the condition that the flight is completed within 720 hours, and before midnight of 31 December 1919.

To fund the race, McGinness approached Sir Samuel McCaughey, the man who donated the plane that McGinness flew in for World War I. Prior to the race, on 25 July 1919, McCaughey died and his executors refused to honour his agreement with McGinness. As a result, plans for the race were abandoned. They were instructed to survey the route from the town of Longreach, past Katherine, and ending at the state capital of Darwin, in the Northern Territory.

Arriving in Longreach in August 1919, they acquired a Model T Ford, as a transport for the survey, and were accompanied by a mechanic, George Gorham. Leaving Longreach on 18 August 1919, the group traveled through Winton, Kynuna and McKinlay, reaching the town of Cloncurry on 20 August 1919. As a result of their journey across the outback, the group found Legge's route lacking the necessary open space for aircraft landing. Fysh and McGinness became convinced that an alternate route through the Barkly Tableland will be more convenient for the winners of the air race, after talking to some motorcyclists from Sydney. Shortly before the landing of the Smith brothers, the landing strip at Fannie Bay was completed at the cost of £A700.

On 10 December 1919, the team of Ross Smith, Keith Smith, Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers, winners of the Great Race, arrived in Darwin and were greeted by Fysh (as the official representative of the Defence Department). Deciding to return to Longreach in May 1920, Fysh met Alexander Kennedy, when he was given hospitality in Kennedy's homestead, Bushby Park. As McGinness had stopped at the homestead earlier on his way to Cloncurry, Kennedy told Fysh about McGinness' idea of an airline service for the region.

Foundation of Qantas

thumb|right|Model T Ford used in the 1919 survey

After reuniting at the Cloncurry Post Office, McGinness and Fysh started to make plans to build their airline service, confident in the future of commercial aviation. Writing about his experiences in the outback in his autobiography, Fysh commented that: