John Flynn OBE DD (1880 - 1951)

Born 25 Nov 1880 in Moliagul, Victoria (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Jean Blanch (Baird) Flynn — married 7 May 1932 in Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia

Died 5 May 1951 at age 70 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

John Flynn OBE DD is Notable.

John Flynn was an Australian Presbyterian minister who founded the Australian Inland Mission (AIM), which later became known as Frontier Services, as well as founding what became the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance. ^[1]

"In his understanding of community development, Flynn was ahead of his time, for the service he envisaged was to be a framework within which outback communities might 'structure and coordinate' their own 'canopy' of safety."

formative years

John Flynn was born on 25th November 1880 in Moliagul, Victoria (Australia), the second son and third of four children of Irish emigrant, Thomas Eugene Flynn, schoolteacher, and his wife Rosetta Forsyth, née Lester. ^[2] Educated at Snake Valley, Sunshine and Braybrook Primary Schools, he matriculated from University High School, Parkville, aged 18 years. He was raised in Maitland, New South Wales by his mother's sister, Rebecca Cook, for two years after his mother died.

Unable to finance a university course, John became a pupil-teacher with the Victorian Education Department and developed interests in photography and first aid. In 1903 he began training for the ministry through an extra-mural course for 'student lay pastors', serving meanwhile in pioneering districts of Beech Forest and Buchan. His next four years in theological college were interspersed with two periods on a shearers' mission and the publication of his Bushman's Companion (1910). John also knew 'tough times' – his mother died in childbirth with his younger sister and his only brother died when John was still in his teens – and they made his drive to help others in need so much stronger.

John Flynn's Bushman's Companion

mission to the Australian outback

John Flynn had a vision to establish a “mantle of safety” so people could build sustainable communities despite the hardships of outback life, which is still being driven to this day. A pressing need was for medical services and John focused on setting up nursing posts and hospitals. Sisters travelled by camel, horse, rail and even motor tricycle. The first Australian Inland Mission (AIM) 'Patrol Padres' went out in 1913 by camel and horse from Pine Creek, Oodnadatta, Broome and Port Hedland to provide pastoral care and counselling services to people on isolated properties, mine sites and road gangs. john also saw improved communications as another way to overcome outback isolation. With his encouragement, the pedal wireless was invented by Alf Traeger, and featured a generator operated by pedal power similar to a bicycle. By 1937 there were 64 pedal wireless sets in the AIM network of nine hospitals, seven Patrol Padres, eight Mission and Welfare Centres and three Aerial Medical Service bases. ^{[3] [4]}

Pedal radio transmitter/receiver

flying doctor service

John Flynn also dreamed of using aircraft to conquer the vast outback distances. He was aware of the cost of maintaining and operating aeroplanes, however, this was favourable when compared to building a road network in Australia's outback. He formed the AIM Aerial Medical Service which later became a separate organisation called The Royal Flying Doctor Service. Having formed a friendship with (Sir) Hudson Fysh, QANTAS leased, on very favourable terms, a 'De Havilland 50' aircraft, the first machine available and suitable for aerial medical work. History was made and Flynn's vision became a reality on 17th May 1928 when Dr St Vincent Welch and pilot Affleck at the controls of Victory, answered the first call received by the AIM Aerial Medical Service. Today, just ninety years on (2018), the Royal Flying Doctor Service is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world, providing extensive primary health care and 24-hour emergency service to people over an area of 7.69 million square kilometres. ^[5]

Pioneering Royal Flying Doctor Service a letter to Flynn from Lieutenant Clifford Peel of the Australian Flying Corps, AIF

school of the air

John Flynn recognised the role the two-way radio would play in the socialisation of people in remote areas as they developed a community that is 'heard' but rarely seen. He gained Adelaide Miethke's support for the establishment of the Alice Springs Aerial Medical Service: on just one visit, she recognised the potential the 'flying doctor' network offered for a 'school of the air' which she later inaugurated. ^[6]

School of the Air

at rest

On 5th May 1951 at Newtown, New South Wales, John Flynn passed away as a result of cancer; or, as he would say, entered his rest as we await the resurrection. He was just seventy years of age. ^[7] His ashes, at his request as expressed through his widow, were placed at the foot of Mt Gillen, Alice Springs.

honours

This may seem an odd place to record a marriage, however, at 51 years of age on Saturday 7th May 1932 it was truly an honour for John Flynn, that the secretary of the AIM, Jean Blanch Baird, would marry him in the Presbyterian Church, Ashfield, in Sydney's inner western suburbs. ^[8] The wedding, reportedly, came as a surprise even to his close friends.

John was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 3rd June 1933 for his work as superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission. ^[9]

In 1939 he was elected to the three-year term as moderator-general of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. ^[10]

In 1940 and 1941 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD) was conferred on him by both the University of Toronto and the Presbyterian College at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in honour of his life devoted to theological pursuits and community betterment.

John Flynn $20

legacy

John achieved the goals he believed God had given him, amidst the background of two world wars and a global depression

Continuing John Flynn's legacy of delivery a 'Mantle of Safety'. Since its establishment in 1907 Frontier Services (then Australian Inland Mission (AIM)) still continues to deliver Flynn's vision of a 'Mantle of Safety' to the people of outback Australia in collaboration with remote services like the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

John Flynn is featured on the reverse of the polymer Australian twenty-dollar note.

John Flynn's name has also been adopted in commemoration of him, including:

• the Canberra suburb of Flynn honours his memory.
• the federal electorate of Flynn in Queensland was created by the Australian Electoral Commission in 2006. ^[11]
• Qantas has announced that they intend naming an Airbus A380 after Flynn in recognition of his contribution to the aviation industry and particularly to his achievement of founding the Royal Australian Flying Doctors Service.
• the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine has also created a John Flynn Placement Program, which is a scholarship for medical students wanting to experience medical practice in the outback.
• a memorial was built in 1952 at the intersection of the Barkly and Stuart Highways about 24 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia. The land around the memorial was proclaimed as the John Flynn Historical Reserve on 30th June 1978.
• a museum commemorating the founding of the Royal Flying Doctor Service is located at John Flynn Place in Cloncurry.
• the John Flynn Memorial Church, Alice Springs, 2015.
• the John Flynn Memorial Uniting Church in Alice Springs was officially opened by Governor-General William Slim on Sunday 6th May 1956.
• the John Flynn Memorial Hospital on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
• Ion Idriess wrote Flynn of the Inland in 1932. The book told of Flynn's life and the establishment and running of the Australian Inland Mission.
• Barry Brown, John Flynn and the Flying Doctor Service, 1960.
• Janet and Geoff Benge, John Flynn: Into the Never Never. ^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ Reserve Bank of Australia: John Flynn timeline; accessed 9 Sep 2018
2. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #4322/1881
3. ↑ Frontier Services; accessed 9 Sep 2018
4. ↑ Frontier Services Foundation
5. ↑ Royal Flying Doctor Service; accessed 9 Sep 2018
6. ↑ School of the Air; accessed 9 Sep 2018
7. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #8733/1951
8. ↑ New South Wales Marriage Index #5093/1932
9. ↑ Australian Honours: Officer of the Order of the British Empire; accessed 13 May 2022
10. ↑ Presbyterian Church of Australia; accessed 9 Sep 2018
11. ↑ Electorate of Flynn; accessed 9 Sep 2018
12. ↑ YWAM Publishing. ISBN: 9781576588987

See also:

• Bucknall, Graeme. Flynn, John (1880–1951). Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 9 Sep 2018.
• Fysh, Wilmot Hudson, Qantas Rising: The Autobiography of the Flying Fysh. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, New South Wales, 1965. Re-published by Pictorial Press Australia, Corinda Queensland, 2009. ISBN 978 1 876561 53 6.
• Kotlowski, Elizabeth Rogers. John Flynn; accessed 9 Sep 2018.
• Royal Flying Doctor Servce: John Flynn; accessed 9 Sep 2018.
• South Australian History: John Flynn; accessed 9 Sep 2018.
• A tribute to Influential Australian Christians: John Flynn; accessed 9 Sep 2018.
• Wikipedia: John Flynn; accessed 9 Sep 2018.