Charles Arthur Kingsford Smith

Charles Arthur Kingsford-Smith is the only direct living descendent of the greatest pioneering aviator of all time, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. His mother – Mary Powell of Melbourne – met Smithy in 1929 on the cruise ship Aorangi from Vancouver to Australia. They were married on December 10, 1930 and Charles Arthur was born on December 22, 1932 in Woollahra, a suburb of Sydney.

Smithy was aiming to get home in time for Charles Arthur’s 3rd birthday when he tragically disappeared somewhere over the Bay of Bengal in November 1935, on the flight home from England to Australia in the Lockheed Altair The Lady Southern Cross.

In December 1937 Mary remarried and two years later the family left Australia for America. Charles Arthur’s stepfather, Alan Tully of Illinois, USA was CEO of the Ethyl Corporation for Canada. The family moved to Canada in 1955.

Charles Arthur was educated in the USA. He worked as an electronics engineer with Hewlett-Packard and since retirement has worked with inventors and patents for companies such as Microsoft. In 1965 he married Mary Marcroft, whom he had met in church on the San Francisco peninsula several years earlier. They have two sons: John and Stephen. A third son, Peter, died as an infant from SIDS (cot death). Charles is currently 78 years old and lives in Bellingham, Washington State, USA. He is the official representative and spokesperson for the Kingsford Smith family.

Like his famous father, Charles Arthur is also a pilot. He received his private pilot’s license in 1959, and an instrument rating in 1969. His self-proclaimed love of flying is “in the blood”, a fact discovered during a long cross-country flight with a friend in 1958 that put the bug in him to learn how to fly. A major motive was to really understand the medium of flight that was so compelling to his father. Many things about flying small aircraft today are still similar to Smithy’s era eg airplane controls, aerodynamics, the perspective from the cockpit, etc and Charles Arthur’s experiences flying aircraft have increased his sense of kinship with his father.

On 31 May, 1978, the 50th Anniversary of the Southern Cross’ departure from Oakland, Charles Arthur flew a twin-engine pressurized Cessna 340 from Oakland to Brisbane Australia and completed the flight 50 years to the hour from the departure of the Southern Cross. There was an enthusiastic reception in Brisbane, and later in Sydney. During the ensuing weeks Charles learned from many contacts with Aussies from all walks of life of the overwhelming affection with which his Dad is regarded in his home country.

Charles Arthur has been a keen participant of the Project Lady Southern Cross and the investigative documentary Flight of the Cross being initiated by Filmmaker Damien Lay, with the view that the results will be satisfying for himself and many others, allowing them to complete that unfinished chapter of his father’s life and career.