Underpinning our values
Relics from the first AFC Sergeants’ Mess at Point Cook are preserved at RAAF Base Williams, as Andrew Stackpool discovered.

The original Minutes Book of the SGTs’ Mess.

Photos by SGT Dave Grant

Warrant Office Steve Dutton describes himself as a proud caretaker. His Mess at RAAF Base Williams is home to many items of historic and heritage significance to Air Force, which were retrieved from the Point Cook Sergeants’ Mess after it was closed in 1998.

“Our principal items include the Honour Board [from the Point Cook Mess], and the damaged (but repaired) propeller from the Vickers Vimy flown by Sir Keith and Sir Ross Smith when they won the Mail Race from England to Australia in 1919,” he says.

“We have a wapiti [elk], which was shot in Canada by one of the pilots in 1917 and subsequently mounted in the Mess. We also have the President of the Mess Committee’s chair that was made in Japan during the occupation after World War II.

Her Majesty the Queen and Sir Robert Menzies are reported to have used it – not at the same time, though,” he says.

Pride of place goes to the original Minutes Book that details the formation of the first Air Force Sergeants’ Mess.

Warrant Officer Dutton says the book is of incalculable historical value.

“The Minutes Book is incredible reading and provides an extraordinary and unique insight into that era, and the efforts required to get the Mess up and running from scratch,” he says.

“There’s mention of purchasing their own dinner-ware, boot scrapes – even spittoons.

“The first entry is dated ‘10 September 1915’, and this is the start of the first Air Force related Sergeants’ Mess in Australia. From 1915 until 1920 the Mess was part of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC).”

In 1920, the AFC became the Australian Air Corps, before becoming the Australian Air Force in March 1921 and ultimately the RAAF in August that year.

“Thus, the first Sergeants’ Mess in the Air Force was officially formed on September 1, 1915 and the Honour Board within our Mess records the first President presiding in 1915. He was Sergeant H. Chester, AFC.”

According to the Mess history, the Point Cook Sergeants’ Mess agreed an entrance fee of one day’s pay and monthly fees of ‘2/6d’ (25 cents). Opening on September 1 ensured a full month’s fees were collected.

Then, according to the minutes, on May 22, 1916, a levy of ‘3/6d’ (35 cents) was raised to purchase curtains for the Mess.

“There is a hand-written note about a meeting being deferred because of the funerals of [Captain] Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett in 1922,” he says.

Sir Ross Smith and the then Sergeant James Bennett were two of the four-man crew that flew a Vickers Vimy bomber from England to Australia in 1919 to win the £10,000 prize offered by the Australian Government for the first non-stop flight. Smith was knighted and Sergeant Bennett was commissioned shortly afterwards.

In 1922, the two men were test-flying a Vickers Viking amphibian aircraft in England for an attempt at a flight around the world when the aircraft crashed. Both men were killed instantly.

Warrant Officer Dutton is concerned that the items or their significance could easily become lost unless greater effort is made to make people aware of them.

“These are just a couple of things we have from our earliest aviation history,” he says.

“They are things that most people are not aware of and could quite easily be lost if we don’t promote and maintain our values.”

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