London to Adelaide souvenir

Souvenir flag issued to commemorate Ross and Keith Smith's successful flight from London to Adelaide. It features a drawing of the Smiths' Vickers Vimy plane in black on a beige coloured fabric, with a silky fringe, and the words 'London to Adelaide 1920' in gold paint. Both Smiths, together with their crew, Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett, have autographed the flag in pencil. The flag was subsquently mounted in a wooden frame, with three contemporary newspapers cuttings attached to the back.

Brothers Ross and Keith Smith were the winners of the £10,000 prize offered by the Australian Government to the first to fly from London to Australia in less than 30 days, when they arrived in Darwin on 10 December 1919, with 52 hours to spare. The flight was supported by the two mechanics, Bennett and Shiers. The flight subsequently continued on to the mainland cities where they were greeted with great acclaim.

This banner was donated to the Library in memory of David and Mary Crompton who bought the former Queen’s College, North Adelaide, around 1949 and found this banner amongst the school’s detritus and preserved it. The Smith brothers had been students at the college and perhaps donated the banner to the school.

The State Library has endeavoured to identify and or locate copyright holders of material digitised for this website. Where the copyright owner has not been able to be traced and or located, the Library has decided in good faith to proceed with digitisation and communication on-line.

Material is made available for research or study. You may order a high resolution copy.

For any other use refer to the State Library of South Australia's website information about orphan works. The State Library invites persons who believe they are the copyright owners to contact the Library to discuss usage of this item.