fbpx

Aviator, Nigel Love

Nigel Love in the cockpit of a Curtiss Jenny biplane, Richmond, New South Wales, 1916.

Image courtesy of National Library of Australia

2020 officially marked 100 years of Sydney Airport, first established in a Mascot bullock paddock by Strathfield World War I pilot, Nigel Borland Love with Jack Warneford and Harry Broadsmith. Love became Managing Director of the business registered as the Australian Aircraft & Engineering Co. Ltd. and attempted to stimulate community interest in the possibilities of aviation. Avro 504K planes were constructed by the company nearby. Love also undertook joy flights at Mascot to raise funds for the business. A journalist was taken aloft in January 1920 and wrote an eloquent description of his flight for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Nigel Love made the first commercial passenger air trip between two Australian capital cities during April 1920, flying businessman John Gibson to Melbourne. The flight left Mascot on 14 April and took nine flying hours over three days, with stops at Goulburn, Yass, Cootamundra, Albury and Seymour. The weather was atrocious with strong winds and heavy rain. The pilot and his passenger spent one night at Yass and the other at Albury.

Leaving Yass on the second morning they planned to breakfast in Cootamundra. But bad weather forced them to land in a paddock several miles from Galong, NSW. Despairing of food, they were stunned to see a crowd of students come charging up over a hill. Managing to secure a car, the intrepid travellers were taken away for their breakfast. Love described Albury as the worst of the landing grounds and commented that petrol supplies would have been scarce if adequate arrangements had not been made ahead of time. John Gibson was apparently so pleased with his eventful trip that he returned with Love to Sydney a few days later. The return flight took just under nine hours.

In May 1922 Captain Love took part in the Aerial Derby held at Victoria Park Racecourse where he distinguished himself by winning both the Derby and the Handicap in his Avro machine.

Sydney Mail 10 May 1922 p.11
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169770171

 

Sydney Mail 10 May 1922 p.11
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169770171

The Referee reported on his ‘magnificent exhibition’ in front of 7000 spectators at the ground and countless thousands elsewhere crowding the sandhills between the racecourse and Botany Bay.

On 22 June 1922 Captain Love delivered the first Australian-built plane – of local materials – to the Australian Air Force. Another five had also been ordered. The Prime Minister’s wife Dame Mary Hughes christened it Mary with the words ‘I name thee Mary. God bless your pilot and all who fly in you.

Captain Love was accompanied by his fiancee, Phyllis during the trials, which were witnessed by the Prime Minister and Mr Chapman MHR. Miss Phyllis Davey was the daughter of Alderman George Davey of Strathfield Council and would become Mrs Love in 1924 when the couple married at Strathfield Methodist Church.

Daily Telegraph 17 June 1922 p.7
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245736377

The Australian Aircraft & Engineering Co. also had the distinction of supplying the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (QANTAS) with its first commercial aircraft after its founding in November 1920 but sadly the company went into liquidation in 1923. Insufficient orders and lack of funds made the business unviable and when their lease of the bullock paddock expired, the Commonwealth government resumed the airfield.

The Herald (Melbourne) 14 March 1922 p.16
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243639378

After Amy Johnson’s record-breaking flight to Australia in 1930, she was accorded a welcome at Mascot. Among the gifts bestowed upon her was a piece of canvas from the Red Baron’s plane – a special gift from Nigel Love. After Baron Von Richthofen was shot down in April 1918 on the Western Front, it was the No 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, with whom Love served, that was responsible for dealing with his remains and plane. Charles Kingsford-Smith served with the same squadron.

The remains of Baron von Richthofen’s Fokker Triplane at the aerodrome of No. 3 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps. Image courtesy Australian War Memorial.

Later, Love joined the Davey family in the flour milling business, building his mill at Enfield and registering his firm as N.B Love Pty Ltd. The mill in Braidwood Street, Strathfield South is now part of Weston Milling.

From letter dated 1947. Courtesy National Archives of Australia

From the 1930s to the late 1950s Nigel and Phyllis made their home at 19 South Street Strathfield before moving to Canberra. During World War II he served as Wing Commander in the Royal Australian Air Force and commanded No.2 Wing of the Air Training Corps.

In retirement, the Loves settled at Killara, where Nigel died on 2 October 1979. Phyllis died there on 24 July 1985.

 

by J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

Sydney Morning Herald 15 January 1920 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28093914

Sunday Times 18 April 1920 p.5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120528135

The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times (Albury) 20 April 2020 p.3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120590912

Sydney Mail 10 May 1922 p.11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169770171

Referee 10 May 1922 p.15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/127919425

Daily Telegraph 17 June 1922 p.8. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245736466

Evening News 16 June 1922 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118855607

Evening News 6 June 1930 p.7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article117478538

 

Further reading:

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/love-nigel-borland-7244

https://www.sydstories.com.au/#/chapter/3

2 Comments. Leave new

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

Menu