Sydney Hugh 'Syd' de Kantzow
The thews and sinews of Cathay Pacific Airways, the factors responsible for its fast-growing strength and efficiency, were rooted in the varied personalities and experience of a remarkable group of men. Of these, two in particular created the foundation that became the legendary Cathay Pacific Airways. They were the Australian Captain Sydney Hugh de Kantzow and American Captain Roy Clinton Farrell.
Syd de Kantzow was born on 9 November 1914 to Charles Adolphus and Francis de Kantzow in the lazy seaside town of Austinmer, near Wollongong in New South Wales. The de Kantzow family was of Polish origin and moving to Sweden during the Swedish domination of Poland. Thereafter the family became prominent in many parts of the world, especially when Africa and the East came under European influence.
Brought up in the Sydney suburb of Roseville, Syd learned flying at Mascot in 1934. He is credited with the formation of Canberra’s first Aero Club where he formed a partnership with Rod Julius. Rod was the son of Sir George Julius, the foundation chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research who later in 1934 became Chairman of the Australian Council for Aeronautics. Rod held the agency for Piper aircraft. The partners persuaded several enthusiasts to contribute £A50 each towards the purchase of a Piper, with a purchasing commitment to teach the co-owners to fly. They taught many who were to make their mark in wartime flying, one of their earliest pupils being the future Lady Casey, wife of Lord (R.G.) Casey, the celebrated Member of the War Cabinet and Governor of Bengal. Rod Julius unfortunately met an early death when he flew into a hill during a restricted visibility approach to land.
Syd renewed his acquaintance with John - later Pinky - Wawn who, with George Peter Hoskins had taken flying lessons with them. With their B Licences allowing them to fly for hire or reward de Kantzow and Wawn applied for a job with the New South Wales based Southern Airlines and Freighters Limited, the former Intercity Airways. The Managing Director was the fabled Ian H. Grabowsky or Grab to his legion of mates.
Grab made them co-pilots on the then modern giant Codock, and its derivative the Tugan Gannet, disrespectfully dubbed Pregnant Percys. In my callow youth I thought it a monstrosity dreamed up by designers in the grip of the grape, but they were exceptional aeroplanes for the period. The Codock derived its name from the unlikely place of its birth - Cockatoo Island Dockyard facing Sydney Harbour, a yard renowned for its ships. My hero Sir Charles Kingsford Smith made its initial test flight on the 6 March 1934.
In a Mascot hangar the gifted aeronautical engineers, Leo Turl and Frank Gannon evolved the Codock design into the Tugan Gannet. Their hangar, previously occupied by the General Aircraft Company, bore the name Tugan Aircraft Limited a word play on the partners’ surnames.
The Gannet was a high-wing survey, photographic and ambulance aircraft with a wing span of 52 feet, a length of 34 feet 6 inches, an empty weight of 3,242 lbs and a loaded weight of 5,400 lbs.
Her two 200-hp DH Gypsy Six engines gave her a maximum speed of 150 mph and a range of 550 miles.
Frank Gannon interested me for he had developed the Genairco, a type that I once held a third share. She was a joyflighter’s delight for her front cockpit seated two passengers. Yet, of greater interest were their two Tugan Gannets VH-UVU and VH-UYE. The former because de Kantzow and Wawn flew her, and the latter because she responded to the caress of a man I befriended in Ansett Airways - Charles Gatenby.
Captain Gatenby, with Sid Marshall as his co-pilot engineer, skippered VH-UYE when she became the first Australian designed and built aircraft to fly across an ocean. In June 1937 their return flight took them from Sydney to Rabaul by way of Brisbane, Rockhampton, Townsville, Port Douglas, Port Moresby and Lae. The Sydney Daily Telegraph had chartered the plane to photograph the Rabaul volcanic eruptions and was very pleased with the results.
Prior to that adventure Charles had joined forces with Syd de Kantzow. In October 1934 they had set off for England to buy a C30 Autogiro that they planned to fly back to Australia. Fortunately, they saw reason and abandoned the flight. They shipped it to Western Australia, assembled it in Perth and set out for New Guinea. Mechanical misfortune plagued them and they never got their Autogiro to that rugged country.
To return to Syd de Kantzow and John Wawn, their first commercial flying took them from their Sydney base to Bathurst, Mudgee, Orange, Dubbo, Nyngan, Cobar and Wilcannia as inducement offered, while the DC-2 and the DC-3 phased out the Gannets.
However, the war years brought a rebirth of the Gannet when Butler Air Transport operated the type from Sydney to Bega. That service on the New South Wales southern coast became known as the Bega or Bust run.
Although the red-dust country brought them great experience, the limitations of the routes began to bore them. The distant rumblings of a European war caught their adventurous spirits and they resigned, sailing for the United Kingdom on the P&O liner Ormonde. As the voyage progressed they befriended two other young fellows on short service commissions with the RAF. Regrettably, their commissions were very short, for within months Hitler’s Luftwaffe had blasted them from the skies.
Syd and John’s Australian experience landed them jobs with Great Western and Southern Airlines. This tiny company was a subsidiary of Imperial Airways, which became British Overseas Airways (BOAC) and is now British Airways (BA). With Great Western they commanded DH 89As, Short Scions, Percival Gulls, and the reliable DH 84. Their bread-and-butter route was to the Scilly Isles west of Lands End. As war drew nearer, John Wawn
decided his prime allegiance was to Australia. He hastened back and was commissioned in the RAAF where he served with distinction.
When the shooting war began, Syd de Kantzow joined No. 24 Communications Squadron in Britain. A few months later he met Charles W.A. Scott who had partnered Tom Campbell Black in winning the speed division of the England to Australia MacRobertson Air Race. They crossed the finishing line above Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne on 23 October 1934 - the year that de Kantzow was learning to fly. Scott and Black’s sleek red aircraft was a de Havilland 88 Comet christened Grosvenor House and registered G-CSS. They finished the race in the then incredible elapsed time of 70 hours, 38 minutes and 18 seconds. The importance of the aircraft was its design that was later incorporated in the famous World War II de Havilland Mosquito.
Scott and de Kantzow were assigned to ferry Bristol bombers to Greece. These were hazardous duties for the Middle East was a powder keg waiting to explode into intense and vicious fighting. Their delivery duties included training members of the Greek Air Force to operate the Blenheims.
Syd had built such a reputation that a casual expression of interest landed him an appointment with the Atlantic Ferry Service. He served in this hazardous operation for more than twelve months until the RAF had gained the necessary strength to take over this vital phase of aircraft supply and replacement from America. With the legion of contacts he
made on the Atlantic shuttle he quickly found his a niche in the embryo Pan-American South Atlantic Ferries, flying supply and replacement aircraft through Dakar to the war zones.
From there his employers, Pan-American Airways (PAA) seconded him to a company in which it held 20 per cent of the stock, and he became a valued acquisition of the famous China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). En-route to his China posting in late 1941 he passed through Hong Kong. The Colony impressed him and he vowed he would seek his fortune there when peace came.
Syd de Kantzow was born on 9 November 1914 to Charles Adolphus and Francis de Kantzow in the lazy seaside town of Austinmer, near Wollongong in New South Wales. The de Kantzow family was of Polish origin and moving to Sweden during the Swedish domination of Poland. Thereafter the family became prominent in many parts of the world, especially when Africa and the East came under European influence.
Brought up in the Sydney suburb of Roseville, Syd learned flying at Mascot in 1934. He is credited with the formation of Canberra’s first Aero Club where he formed a partnership with Rod Julius. Rod was the son of Sir George Julius, the foundation chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research who later in 1934 became Chairman of the Australian Council for Aeronautics. Rod held the agency for Piper aircraft. The partners persuaded several enthusiasts to contribute £A50 each towards the purchase of a Piper, with a purchasing commitment to teach the co-owners to fly. They taught many who were to make their mark in wartime flying, one of their earliest pupils being the future Lady Casey, wife of Lord (R.G.) Casey, the celebrated Member of the War Cabinet and Governor of Bengal. Rod Julius unfortunately met an early death when he flew into a hill during a restricted visibility approach to land.
Syd renewed his acquaintance with John - later Pinky - Wawn who, with George Peter Hoskins had taken flying lessons with them. With their B Licences allowing them to fly for hire or reward de Kantzow and Wawn applied for a job with the New South Wales based Southern Airlines and Freighters Limited, the former Intercity Airways. The Managing Director was the fabled Ian H. Grabowsky or Grab to his legion of mates.
Grab made them co-pilots on the then modern giant Codock, and its derivative the Tugan Gannet, disrespectfully dubbed Pregnant Percys. In my callow youth I thought it a monstrosity dreamed up by designers in the grip of the grape, but they were exceptional aeroplanes for the period. The Codock derived its name from the unlikely place of its birth - Cockatoo Island Dockyard facing Sydney Harbour, a yard renowned for its ships. My hero Sir Charles Kingsford Smith made its initial test flight on the 6 March 1934.
In a Mascot hangar the gifted aeronautical engineers, Leo Turl and Frank Gannon evolved the Codock design into the Tugan Gannet. Their hangar, previously occupied by the General Aircraft Company, bore the name Tugan Aircraft Limited a word play on the partners’ surnames.
The Gannet was a high-wing survey, photographic and ambulance aircraft with a wing span of 52 feet, a length of 34 feet 6 inches, an empty weight of 3,242 lbs and a loaded weight of 5,400 lbs.
Her two 200-hp DH Gypsy Six engines gave her a maximum speed of 150 mph and a range of 550 miles.
Frank Gannon interested me for he had developed the Genairco, a type that I once held a third share. She was a joyflighter’s delight for her front cockpit seated two passengers. Yet, of greater interest were their two Tugan Gannets VH-UVU and VH-UYE. The former because de Kantzow and Wawn flew her, and the latter because she responded to the caress of a man I befriended in Ansett Airways - Charles Gatenby.
Captain Gatenby, with Sid Marshall as his co-pilot engineer, skippered VH-UYE when she became the first Australian designed and built aircraft to fly across an ocean. In June 1937 their return flight took them from Sydney to Rabaul by way of Brisbane, Rockhampton, Townsville, Port Douglas, Port Moresby and Lae. The Sydney Daily Telegraph had chartered the plane to photograph the Rabaul volcanic eruptions and was very pleased with the results.
Prior to that adventure Charles had joined forces with Syd de Kantzow. In October 1934 they had set off for England to buy a C30 Autogiro that they planned to fly back to Australia. Fortunately, they saw reason and abandoned the flight. They shipped it to Western Australia, assembled it in Perth and set out for New Guinea. Mechanical misfortune plagued them and they never got their Autogiro to that rugged country.
To return to Syd de Kantzow and John Wawn, their first commercial flying took them from their Sydney base to Bathurst, Mudgee, Orange, Dubbo, Nyngan, Cobar and Wilcannia as inducement offered, while the DC-2 and the DC-3 phased out the Gannets.
However, the war years brought a rebirth of the Gannet when Butler Air Transport operated the type from Sydney to Bega. That service on the New South Wales southern coast became known as the Bega or Bust run.
Although the red-dust country brought them great experience, the limitations of the routes began to bore them. The distant rumblings of a European war caught their adventurous spirits and they resigned, sailing for the United Kingdom on the P&O liner Ormonde. As the voyage progressed they befriended two other young fellows on short service commissions with the RAF. Regrettably, their commissions were very short, for within months Hitler’s Luftwaffe had blasted them from the skies.
Syd and John’s Australian experience landed them jobs with Great Western and Southern Airlines. This tiny company was a subsidiary of Imperial Airways, which became British Overseas Airways (BOAC) and is now British Airways (BA). With Great Western they commanded DH 89As, Short Scions, Percival Gulls, and the reliable DH 84. Their bread-and-butter route was to the Scilly Isles west of Lands End. As war drew nearer, John Wawn
decided his prime allegiance was to Australia. He hastened back and was commissioned in the RAAF where he served with distinction.
When the shooting war began, Syd de Kantzow joined No. 24 Communications Squadron in Britain. A few months later he met Charles W.A. Scott who had partnered Tom Campbell Black in winning the speed division of the England to Australia MacRobertson Air Race. They crossed the finishing line above Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne on 23 October 1934 - the year that de Kantzow was learning to fly. Scott and Black’s sleek red aircraft was a de Havilland 88 Comet christened Grosvenor House and registered G-CSS. They finished the race in the then incredible elapsed time of 70 hours, 38 minutes and 18 seconds. The importance of the aircraft was its design that was later incorporated in the famous World War II de Havilland Mosquito.
Scott and de Kantzow were assigned to ferry Bristol bombers to Greece. These were hazardous duties for the Middle East was a powder keg waiting to explode into intense and vicious fighting. Their delivery duties included training members of the Greek Air Force to operate the Blenheims.
Syd had built such a reputation that a casual expression of interest landed him an appointment with the Atlantic Ferry Service. He served in this hazardous operation for more than twelve months until the RAF had gained the necessary strength to take over this vital phase of aircraft supply and replacement from America. With the legion of contacts he
made on the Atlantic shuttle he quickly found his a niche in the embryo Pan-American South Atlantic Ferries, flying supply and replacement aircraft through Dakar to the war zones.
From there his employers, Pan-American Airways (PAA) seconded him to a company in which it held 20 per cent of the stock, and he became a valued acquisition of the famous China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). En-route to his China posting in late 1941 he passed through Hong Kong. The Colony impressed him and he vowed he would seek his fortune there when peace came.
When Syd de Kantzow severed his connection with Cathay Pacific Airways William Bill Knowles, a director of Butterfield and Swire replaced him. The restless Syd travelled to several countries then returned to Australia. For some years little was heard of him until his reported death. The 16 November 1957 found him travelling by car two close friends and partners to Thredbo Valley. At Thredbo they intended to build an additional ski hut to their camp.
Ronald James Giner Mildren was driving, John Aubrey Pinky Wawn was his navigator with Sydney Hugh Syd de Kantzow buried under a mountain of luggage in the back seat. All were in high spirits but soon two would die! About 6 miles west of Cooma on the Berridale Road, Giner lost control on a slight bend. The car veered sharply right and stopped on its right side after uprooting a fencepost.
They had entered the bend at 15:40 hours at 60 mph and within seconds Giner lay crumpled across a fence wire gasping away his life, having sustained shocking injuries when hurled through the windscreen like a projectile.
A semi-conscious Pinky bled from a dozen deep gashes as the police and ambulance arrived together. A doctor pronounced Giner dead and a policeman covered him with a rug. They lifted Pinky and Syd into the ambulance and rushed them to Cooma Hospital. Pinky recovered overnight but Syd did not respond. On 20 November they transferred him to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, but he never regained consciousness. The vagaries of weather in an unfriendly sky, the menacing peaks of the Himalayas, even the monkey-men of Nippon could not crush his spirit, but a mundane car accident did just that!
Regretfully, I did not understand or become a close friend of Captain Sydney Hugh de Kantzow, and that is my loss. Yet, I respected him with the intensity of a callow hero worshipper. Syd went home at 06:00 hours on 21 November 1957 aged 43 years.
Ronald James Giner Mildren was driving, John Aubrey Pinky Wawn was his navigator with Sydney Hugh Syd de Kantzow buried under a mountain of luggage in the back seat. All were in high spirits but soon two would die! About 6 miles west of Cooma on the Berridale Road, Giner lost control on a slight bend. The car veered sharply right and stopped on its right side after uprooting a fencepost.
They had entered the bend at 15:40 hours at 60 mph and within seconds Giner lay crumpled across a fence wire gasping away his life, having sustained shocking injuries when hurled through the windscreen like a projectile.
A semi-conscious Pinky bled from a dozen deep gashes as the police and ambulance arrived together. A doctor pronounced Giner dead and a policeman covered him with a rug. They lifted Pinky and Syd into the ambulance and rushed them to Cooma Hospital. Pinky recovered overnight but Syd did not respond. On 20 November they transferred him to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, but he never regained consciousness. The vagaries of weather in an unfriendly sky, the menacing peaks of the Himalayas, even the monkey-men of Nippon could not crush his spirit, but a mundane car accident did just that!
Regretfully, I did not understand or become a close friend of Captain Sydney Hugh de Kantzow, and that is my loss. Yet, I respected him with the intensity of a callow hero worshipper. Syd went home at 06:00 hours on 21 November 1957 aged 43 years.