Pilot Officer Charles Anderson (1916 -1941)

Charles Anderson was the elder son of Nicholas and Agnes Anderson who had been newsagents in Narrogin since 1909.  The family had an early association with aviation when in December 1919 his parents were among the first Narrogin residents to fly with Major Norman Brearley (coincidentally, many years later, Charles lived at the College at the same time as Major Brearley’s son Maurice).  Charles won a scholarship to attend Perth Modern School (1929 to 1933), where he was a School Prefect and editor of The Sphinx magazine.  The Principal noted in his school record:  One of the better lads admitted.  Promising in all ways.  A nice personality.

Enrolling in Engineering at UWA in 1934, he did not come to St George’s until 1936.  He played a very active role in College life, as evidenced by John B. Scott (1936) who said of him, in a eulogy:

His own wide and varied interests were in themselves a source of pleasure to his friends...  He was our Authority on many questions, but chiefly with those which concerned America and American life and thought.

In sport he took a prominent part, especially…rowing… In 1937 he stroked the first victorious College crew…  – a very fine feat indeed when it is recalled that our opponents were stroked by that redoubtable Interstate oarsman, Don Fraser. [Don Fraser went on to win a gold medal as a member of Australia’s coxed four crew at the Sydney 1938 British Empire Games.]

The success the College has enjoyed in this sport since 1936 has been due in no small measure to Mr. Anderson’s enthusiasm and energy – and… to his powers of persuasion.  For if ever a man could coax an unwilling crew from their studies to the boat on a rough day, it was he.

His organising ability was appreciated... He was twice co-opted to the Guild Council to assist them in the organisation of their more portentous undertakings such as Graduation Ball… We owe him a debt of thanks not so much for what he did for the College and the University, as for the manner in which it was done – for the time so ungrudgingly given and for the efficiency and tact he displayed.

Charles joined the Citizen Air Force as an Air Cadet in October 1938, before war broke out.  In April 1939 he was called up for continuous service, interrupting the final part of his engineering studies, and became a Pilot Officer, commissioned in September 1939, with 25 Squadron RAAF (City of Perth) at Pearce.  The squadron was equipped with Australian-built Wirraways, which trained flying cadets, provided air defence for Perth, and flew anti-submarine patrols off Fremantle.  Charles obtained a release from full-time service in November 1939 and was placed on reserve to complete his studies, which he did in November 1940, returning to the active list in December.

Wednesday 19th February 1941 was a scorcher.  The temperature reached 100.1 degrees Fahrenheit at 4.30pm, and thousands of people flocked to the beaches in the evening.  At 8pm Charles, who had agreed to take the place of a friend as the observer in an aircraft detailed for exercises with search lights, took off in Wirraway A20-125 from Pearce and headed to Fremantle.  The pilot was 19 year old Flying Officer Ronald James Sykes from Victoria, and the objective of the exercise was for the pilot and the Fremantle searchlight operators to train by pitting their skills against one another.

The next morning The West Australian reported:

With a crash which was distinctly audible to a large crowd spending the hot night on South Beach, a Royal Australian Air Force plane crashed into the sea off Fremantle at 8.35 o’clock last night.  Naval launches quickly put out to begin a search, which was intensified by the arrival of an Air Force plane from which flares were dropped…

The plane was working in co-operation with an anti-aircraft searchlight unit in routine training.  It had made several circuits within the radius of the beam when it appeared to bank and then crashed into the sea.  A large crowd had been watching… and they waited breathless as the plane dropped.  Then, out of the beam of the searchlight, they lost sight of it, but a few seconds later a muffled explosion reached their ears.

There was a divergence of opinion… as to how the motor was running just prior to the crash.  One witness said that it was the sound of the motor missing which first made him watch it, but another stated that the motor was running perfectly.

Within a few minutes of the crash naval cutters put out from Fremantle to begin searching… assisted in their task by the searchlight which had been co-operating with it... 

One of the onlookers was Charles’ College friend John Scott. 

“I was one of many who saw the search lights lock onto the plane at about 10,000 feet over the sea west of Cottesloe,” John recalled.  “The pilot appeared to be blinded by the lights and the plane plunged into the sea with the loss of two young lives.”

Training to deal with searchlights was an important part of a pilot’s skills.  As pilots would discover on bombing raids over Germany, once caught in a cone of enemy searchlights the average survival time was three minutes. 

The Friday edition of The West Australian confirmed that both airmen had been lost.  A fishing boat had found the wreckage in seven metres of water, three kilometres off South Beach.  A diver went down and confirmed that the bodies of Charles and his colleague were still in their machine.

At the University’s graduation ceremony not long afterwards, Charles was posthumously awarded his Bachelor of Engineering.  He is buried at Karrakatta.

--oOo--

“We honour him not merely because he was one of us… but because of those fine qualities which earned him the respect and esteem of all those with whom he came in contact.  Chief among these qualities was his ability to make friends and keep them.

“My sorrow at his leaving so soon is tempered by the knowledge that he would scoff in a good natured way at any inordinate display of sentiment.”

College Chapel memorial eulogy (by John Scott)