John Cowe McIntosh

John Cowe McIntosh AFC (1892 – 28 March 1921) was a British-born Australian aviator.

McIntosh was born in Scotland and later emigrated to Western Australia.[1] On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps, serving with the 4th Field Ambulance in Gallipoli and reaching the rank of corporal.[1] In 1918, he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and began flying training near Oxford in England. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in April 1919 and shortly afterwards was promoted lieutenant.[1]

After the end of the war, the Australian government offered a prize of £10,000 for the first flight from England to Australia. He paired with another Australian Flying Corps officer, Ray Parer, and, although leaving well after the event had been won, they arrived in Darwin on 2 August 1920. Their aircraft was an Airco DH-9, and theirs was the only other entrant to successfully complete the race. He and Parer were awarded the Air Force Cross for this feat on 23 November 1920,[2] as well as £500 each.[3]

In 1921, McIntosh was killed in an air crash near Pithara, Western Australia. It was the first fatal air crash in the state.[4]

On 21 October 2023, McIntosh and Ray Parer were inducted into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame.[5]

  1. ^ a b c National Library of Australia
  2. ^ "No. 32133". The London Gazette. 23 November 1920. p. 11347.
  3. ^ Isaacs, K., "Parer, Raymond John Paul (1894–1967)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, Melbourne University Press, 1988, pp.133–134
  4. ^ Photograph of the monument to McIntosh, State Library of Western Australia
  5. ^ "John McIntosh". Australian Aviation. Retrieved 29 October 2023.