Lester Joseph Brain AO AFC (1903 - 1980)

Born 27 Feb 1903 in Forbes, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Constance Pauline (Brownhill) Brain — married 1930 in Croydon, New South Wales, Australia

Died 30 Jun 1980 at age 77 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services

Biography

Lester Brain AO AFC is Notable.

Lester Brain AO AFC was born in New South Wales, Australia

Lester Brain AO AFC was a pioneer Australian aviator and airline executive. He joined the fledgling Qantas as a pilot in 1924, rising to chief pilot by 1930 and being appointed Flying Operations Manager in 1938. Seeing little prospect for advancement at Qantas once the Second World War had ended, he joined TAA and was appointed its first general manager. From TAA he became managing director of de Havilland Aircraft before joining the board of East-West Airlines.

Lester Joseph Brian was born on 27th February 1903 in Forbes, New South Wales, Australia. He was was the second son of English-born mining engineer and manager, Austin Brain, and his New South Wales-born wife, Katie Murray. ^[1] He completed his education at Sydney Grammar School, where he excelled in maths, before being employed by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (CBC) in 1919. His father died in 1920.

Lester Brain AO AFC is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Royal Australian Air Force Jan 1924-Jul 1947
Citizen Air Force, attaining the rank of Wing Commander

He was among five civilian students nominated by the Civil Aviation Branch (CAB) of the Defence Department for entry into the inaugural Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flying training course, which commenced at Point Cook, Victoria in January 1923. The benefit of these nominations from a military perspective was that although the destiny of the CAB-sponsored students was to be civil aviators, they would also be members of the RAAF Reserve, known as the Citizen Air Force (CAF), and could therefore be called up for active service as and when necessary. Lester graduated at the top of his class after the year-long training course, and was duly commissioned in the CAF (relinquishing his commission on 1st July 1947 with the rank of Wing Commander). Three months later he took up employment as a pilot with Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (Qantas), its first aviator who was not a First World War aviation veteran. By 1930, Lester was Qantas' Chief Pilot.

In April 1929, Lester took part in a search for lost aviators Keith Anderson and Robert Hitchcock (in their Westland Widgeon, Kookaburra) in northern Australia, piloting a Qantas DH50 Atalanta from Brisbane. The pair had disappeared while searching for Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm, who had been reported missing on a record attempt from Sydney to England in the Southern Cross. Lester located the Kookaburra the next day in the Tanami Desert, approximately 130 kilometres (81 miles) east-south-east of Wave Hill. He saw one body underneath the wing, but the terrain was too dangerous to attempt a landing. Reporting the Kookaburra's position, an overland expedition travelled to the site and buried the bodies of Anderson and Hitchcock, who had evidently survived crash-landing their plane before succumbing to heat and thirst. Lester's discovery of the Kookaburra and, shortly thereafter, of two lost British aviators in Arnhem Land, earned him the Air Force Cross (AFC); the award being gazetted on 31st May 1929. The citation read,

"The KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Air Force Cross to Mr. Leslie Joseph Brain, in recognition of the distinguished services rendered to aviation by his recent flights in the northern territory of Australia in search of missing aviators."

On 8th July 1930 in the Holy Innocents' Roman Catholic Church, Croydon, in Sydney's inner western suburbs, Lester married Queensland-born Constance Brownhill. ^[2]

Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Lester was given the task of co-ordinating Qantas' support for the Australian military, which became known as the Qantas Merchant Air Service. By February 1942, he was running the Qantas base at Broome in north Western Australia, which had assumed major importance as a way station for evacuees from the Netherlands East Indies, possessing a harbour suitable for flying boats, as well as an airfield that could take heavy bombers. On 17th June 1943, Lester was awarded the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct for his service at 'Darwin civil aerodrome during Japanese air raids'. ^[3][4]

After the war, he was appointed Qantas' Assistant General Manager, however, with (Sir) Hudson Fysh still in his early fifties and unlikely to retire any time soon, Lester successfully applied for the position of Operations Manager at the newly-formed government-owned domestic carrier Trans Australia Airlines (TAA). Soon after he was appointed as its inaugural general manager.

He tendered his resignation from TAA in February 1955 to become managing director of de Havilland Aircraft in Sydney. Leaving de Havilland upon its merger with Hawker Siddeley in 1960, he gave up full-time work and joined the board of East-West Airlines as a consultant in January 1961. In August 1964, he began negotiations with the Federal Government on behalf of International Parcels Express Company (now Toll Ipec), which was attempting to enter the air freight business in Australia.

Lester had declined the offer of a knighthood in the late 1960s, but accepted appointment as Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on 26th January 1979. ^[5]

Aged 77 years and having suffered from cancer for several years, he passed away on 30th June 1980 in Sydney. ^[6] He was survived by his wife and two sons and two daughters.

In November 2008, Qantas announced that one of its new Airbus A380s would be named Lester Brain. ^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ New South Wales Birth Index #11751/1903
2. ↑ New South Wales Marriage Index #12219/1930; registered at Burwood
3. ↑ Australian Honours; accessed 6 Oct 2022
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial honours and awards (recommendation; accessed 6 Oct 2022
5. ↑ Australian Honours: AO; accessed 6 Oct 2022
6. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #14513/1980
7. ↑ QANTAS A380S TO HONOUR OUR AVIATION PIONEERS; accessed 6 Oct 2022

See also

• Fysh, Hudson. Qantas Rising: The Autobiography of the Flying Fysh published by Angus & Robertson in 1965, ISBN 978 1 876561 53 6.
• Hazlehurst, Cameron. 'Brain, Lester Joseph (1903–1980)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 6 Oct 2022.
• Wikipedia: Lester Brain; accessed 6 Oct 2022.