Today (21 September 2017) is the 100th anniversary of Patrick Francis Hogan being killed in action. He was a journalist who enlisted in the AIF in February 1915.

The 18^th Battalion volunteers — raised mainly from the Sydney area, including Mosman — were described as ‘great big cheery fellows, whom it did your heart good to see.’ Within 48 hours of landing at Gallipoli, 50% of them were either dead or wounded. A few days later 80% of the 760 men who started the battle had become casualties.

Albatros D.V in combat with a Spad of 23 Squadron, by Terry Jones

Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport has over 40 million passengers arriving and departing every year.

Charles Kingsford-Smith became a household name between and after the wars because of his record-breaking Trans-Pacific flights with Charles Ulm and P.G. Taylor, and mysterious disappearance in 1937.

Less known are his experiences as a combat pilot in 1917, where his flying career was forged in the fires of adversity.

SYDNEY AIRMAN. (1918, March 6). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 11. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15778624

Taylors Sopwith Pup of 66 Squadron, by Mark Postlethwaite.

100 years ago a handful of Royal Flying Corps pilots — including the newly graduated 2^nd Lieutenant P.G. Taylor — contested the skies with German hunting squadrons.

The life expectancy of an RFC pilot averaged only about 18 hours in April 1917. Many died because they flew, in the words of ‘Bill’ Taylor, a motley assortment of ‘…appallingly makeshift aeroplanes.’

This is their story…

Visiting Canberra? Those with an interest in Mosman’s connections with WWI are well served by the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition, Artists of the Great War.