After so many history columns, I am sometimes asked how I can still find things to write about.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Part of the answer is that I am a bower bird, constantly looking for new sticks or trinkets to add to my ever-growing nest!
In today’s case, it was the Tamworth Aviation Facebook page that informed me that on October 25, 1944, Squadron Leader Adam Howie “Curley” Brydon was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross. Attention caught, I started digging.
Adam Howie Brydon was born in Armidale on April 14, 1921, to Dr Adam Gibson Brydon and Marjorie (nee Mallam) Brydon. The couple were well liked and very active in community activities, while Dr Brydon was also The Armidale School (TAS) doctor.
I do not know where Curley went to primary school, but he enrolled at TAS in June 1931. There he was involved in the model aero club, was in the swimming team and played in the TAS 2nd Fifteen.
Curley left TAS in 1939. When war broke out in September, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and completing flying training at Point Cook.
The air force suited Curley who seems to have had a love of fast planes and fast cars.
The Armidalian records that just after the war he decided on impulse at 9pm that he must visit Armidale. Leaving at 3am in his black MG, he arrived in Armidale for breakfast. The next year, the magazine records that he had come second in the Bathurst road race for the second time!
Curley served first in Number 8 Squadron and then in number 78 Squadron. Number 8, which flew Hudson light bombers, took heavy casualties during the Japanese invasion of Malaya and then the Netherlands East Indies, forcing retreat to Australia for retraining and re-equipment.
Number 78 Squadron was formed in July 1943 as one of the new squadrons being equipped with Kittyhawk fighters and took an active role in the fighting over New Guinea.
By October 1944 when Curley received the Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross, he was Squadron Leader in charge of Number 78, the youngest Squadron Leader in the RAAF.
The citation for the award read in part: “Squadron Leader Brydon displayed outstanding courage, keenness and initiative in carrying out extremely hazardous operations which have proved of inestimable value.”
At the end of the war, Curley joined the Fleet Air Arm before moving to the private sector. After establishing Diners Club in Australia, he joined News Limited holding multiple senior executive positions first in Australia and then the United States.
Curley died in September 1986. It had been a long and varied journey from the quiet streets of the Armidale streets of his birth in 1921.
Jim Belshaw’s email is ndarala@optusnet.com.au. He blogs at http://newenglandaustralia.blogspot.com.au/ (New England life) and http://newenglandhistory.blogspot.com.au/ (New England history)
Read more from Jim Belshaw:
