By John Telfer, History Writer
On 3 September 1939, 81 years ago, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany over their invasion of Poland, and from 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940, the historic Battle of Britain was fought over the skies of England defended by the bravery of the pilots and aircrews of the Royal Air Force.
In this conflict the Royal Air Force lost 900 fighter aircraft, 560 Bombers and 500 Coastal patrol aircraft. This caused the British Government to appeal to the Dominion countries to help defend the Empire.
The Australian government responded by introducing the British Empire Training Scheme to help Britain in her hour of need and hundreds of young Australians took up the cause and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force.
However, there were about 12 expatriate Australians living in England who joined the cause, and enlisted in the Royal Air Force.
One young man from Stanthorpe who was resident in England at the time, Charles Alexander McGaw, was quick to enlist and joined the RAF on 13 June, 1939, just as the Luftwaffe were bombing England.
Charles McGaw was born in Pebbleshire, Scotland, on 3 November, 1915. He was the son of William and Agnes McGaw, and when Charles was only aged five, William and his family moved to Stanthorpe on the Southern Downs, Queensland, in 1920.
It was here that Charles received his early education at the Stanthorpe State school, before he was enrolled at Scots College from 1928 to 1930. Charles was never a stand out at Scots as a boarder, but showed a keen interest in music and drama.
On leaving school after obtaining his Leaving Certificate, Charles worked in the family accounting business but was not inspired by this, so decided to explore his Scottish heritage.
He noticed an advertisement in the newspaper that Glasgow Technical College in Scotland was offering a Bursary to prospective students to take up an Engineering course, so he applied and was accepted.
Charles took up the Bursary and did very well, scoring first place out of 600 students with an average of 87 per cent in his first-year examinations. After graduating from Glasgow Tech, Charles secured a position as a draughtsman with Duncan Stewart Engineering Company in Clyde. Now settled in Scotland, Charles met and married a young woman named Margaret Turner who lived in Paisley, Renfrewshire, and settled down to married life.
Charles was always interesting in flying, so successfully obtained a position as an aeronautical instructor with the Air Ministry.
With the imminent threat of war, England was preparing for conflict with Germany and were calling on enlistments in the services, before the first bombs started to fall over London.
Wanting to do his duty to King and Country, Charles enlisted in the RAF on 3 June 1939 for pilot training, and was immediately sent to RAF Cranwell where he gained his ‘wings’. He was commissioned as a pilot officer and posted to 73 Squadron to train and fly Hurricane night fighters. The squadron’s main role was to provide cover over allied airfields and bases. In April 1940, Charles was sent on to No. Six Operational Training Unit at Aston Downs in Gloucestershire, situated in South-West England, which was one of only two squadrons to fly Hurricanes.
Such was the high casualty figures for pilots, Charles was moved around various RAF airfields. On 13 May, Charles was posted to France with 73 squadron before moving back to Biggin Hill, near London to fly spitfires against the Luftwaffe.
On 8 December, 1940, Charles was given a rest from combat duties and posted to the RAF Central Flying School, at Cranwell, as a flying instructor.
He remained in this position until early May 1943, but eager to get into a combat squadron, he applied and was sent to undergo a conversion course on twin engine Douglas Boston aircraft and on completion of this training he was posted to No. 18 Squadron in the Mediterranean.
He was also called on to provide air cover for the British evacuation from Dunkirk.
In July 1943, No. 18 Squadron was moved to Gerbini, in Paterno, Sicily, where he was now facing a new foe in the Italian Air Force in August, 1943. On 1 October, Charles, now a Squadron Leader, set out with eight other Boston aircraft with orders to attack a bridge in Italy.
Charles was flying a Boston III W8398 ‘G’ aircraft with a crew of three which included Flying Officer John Spark, navigator, and Sergeant Walter Fulton, the wireless air gunner.
Charles took off across the Mediterranean, but suddenly he encountered extremely bad weather. In a forced attempt to fly around the gathering stormy weather, Charles’s aircraft ran out of fuel and he was forced to ditch in the sea.
In the ensuing struggle to keep airworthy, Charles crashed into the sea near Messina, but there was only one survivor in Walter Fulton, who suffered terrible injuries. Charles and his navigator were trapped in their aircraft and so sank to a watery grave.
Charles Alexander McGaw died a hero’s death in the service of the RAF and his name is remembered on the Malta Memorial with the caption “Known unto God”; but although he died under a foreign sea, Charles never forgot that he was also an Australian flying with the RAF, and in his documents and personal effects to be sent to his next of kin after his death, it contained a copy of the “Clansman”, the Scots College ex-students news- letter as he had never forgot his days there.
After the war, Charles’s wife Margaret made a sad visit to Charles’s beloved Stanthorpe, to bring her son to meet his grandparents. A son that brave Charles never met. So, Stanthorpe has the distinction of producing a hero of the Battle of Britain who survived this great conflict and will go down in history of one of the “few” as stated by the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill in 1945, when he made that famous speech:
“Never in the history of human conflicts was so much owed by so many, to so few.”
