Banjo Paterson on Harry Hawker

While looking for something else came upon this site. Banjo Paterson wrote this on Harry Hawker, apparently it was when Hawker did a flight to Newfoundland and crashed at sea, he was missing for six days and supposedly this poem was written during that period. The website;

http://www.uq.edu.au/~mlwham/banjo/chronol...html

has other poems of Paterson's through the 1914 - 1919 period, including the "Australia Today 1916" and "We're All Australians Now". It would be nice to compare those poems with the English, French, German, Turkish and American equivalents. "The Army Mule" has a stanza speaking of the flying corps.

For those unaware, Hawker was an Australian who was a leading aviator in the birth of aviation. Supposedly the first man to work out that doing the non-intuitive action of pushing the stick forward was how you got out of a spin, a test pilot for Sopwith and after Sopwith dissolved the company re-birthed as Hawker of later Fury, Hurricane and Hunter fame. Harry Hawker didnt perish as this poem would suggest.

Hawker, the Standard Bearer
by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson

The grey gull sat on a floating whale,
On a floating whale sat he,
And he told his tale of the storm and the gale,
And the ships that he saw with steam and sail,
As he flew by the Northern Sea.

"I have seen a sign that is strange and new,
That I never before did see:
A flying ship that roared as it flew,
The storm and the tempest driving through,
It carried a flag and it carried a crew,
Now what would that be?" said he.

"And the flag was a Jack with stars displayed,
A flag that is new to me;
For it does not ply in the Northern trade,
But it drove through the storm-wrack unafraid,
Now, what is that flag?" said he.

"I have seen that flag that is starred with white,"
Said a southern gull, said he,
"And saw it fly in a bloody fight,
When the raider Emden turned in flight,
And crashed on the Cocos lee."

"And who are these folk whose flag is first
Of all the flags that fly
To dare the storm and the fog accurst,
Of the great North Sea where the bergs are nursed,
And the Northern Lights ride high?"

"The Australian folk," said a lone sea-mew,
"The Australian flag," said he.
"It is strange that a folk that is far and few
Should fly their flag where there never flew
Another flag!" said he.

"I have followed their flag in the fields of France,
With its white stars flying free,
And no misfortune and no mischance
Could turn them back from their line of advance,
Or the line that they held," said he.

"Whenever there's ever rule to break,
Wherever they oughtn't to be,
With a death to dare and a risk to take,
A track to find or a way to make,
You will find them there," said he.

"They come from a land that is parched with thirst,
An inland land," said he,
"On risk and danger their breed is nursed,
And thus it happens their flag is first
To fly in the Northern Sea."

"Though Hawker perished, he overcame
The risks of the storm and the sea,
And his name shall be written in stars of flame,
On the topmost walls of the Temple of Fame,
For the rest of the world to see."



cam
AFC - http://members.nbci.com/pointcook/

Any relation between Lanoe Hawker who Richthofen killed and Harry Hawker? Also does the Hawker aircraft name as in the WW2 Hurricane originate from one of these gentlemen?

Wolfgang,

>Any relation between Lanoe Hawker

No though one half of Lanoe Hawkers family were Australian, and if Cutlack was to be believed, Lanoe considered himself Australian. Killratio will have opinions on that though

>Also does the Hawker aircraft name as in the
>WW2 Hurricane originate from one of
>these gentlemen?

Harry Hawker was the Chief test pilot for Sopwith, when Sopwith went under after WWI, Hawker started Hawker Engineering which was to be the company nearly 15 years later that produced the Hurricane. Hawker didnt see it though.


cam
AFC - http://members.nbci.com/pointcook/

[Darryl]

>>No though one half of Lanoe Hawkers family were >>>Australian, and if Cutlack was to be >>>believed, Lanoe considered himself >>>Australian. Killratio will have opinions on >>>that though

Yes, he will.

regards

Darryl