Studio portrait of Lieutenant Keith Macpherson Smith, Royal Flying Corps (RFC) who was a 24 year ...

Studio portrait of Lieutenant Keith Macpherson Smith, Royal Flying Corps (RFC) who was a 24 year old from Gilberton, South Australia, employed by Elder Smith & Co. in Adelaide on the outbreak of war. Although rejected for service with the A.I.F. on medical grounds, he underwent medical treatment and paid his own passage to England to enlist in the RFC. Accepted in July 1917 into the Officer Cadet Wing, he was posted in November to No. 58 Squadron, a newly formed bomber unit which left for France in January 1918. However, he did not see active service because on 24 February 1918 he was posted to No. 75 Squadron, a home-defence formation, as a gunnery instructor. On 1 April he was promoted Lieutenant and spent the rest of the war in Britain with training establishments. He was placed on the unemployed list, Royal Air Force (R.A.F.), on 5 November 1919 and returned to Australia by air with his brother Ross Smith becoming the first to successfully fly from England to Australia. On 26 December 1919 he was made a Knight Commander of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire for this history-making flight. One of 131 photographs displayed on an honour board showing members of the Adelaide Rowing Club who enlisted for active service in the First World War. The original is held by the Adelaide Rowing Club who kindly loaned the board to the Australian War Memorial for copying.