Each Tuesday, the intrepid team of TPS History detectives meet to delve into the past and research famous events to coincide with the publishing date of this week’s Courier. This term, as we will shortly be remembering the 100 year anniversary of the WW1 Armistice, we have decided to focus on events which happened between the years 1914-18.
The pupils have only one hour to research, write and illustrate their articles. We hope you enjoy them and discover some fascinating bits of History.
Joanna Hall-Tomkin
Head of History and Pastoral Head Years 5 & 6
1914 – The Loss of His Majesty’s Australian submarine (AE1)
HMAS AE1 was an E-class submarine of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was the first submarine to serve in the RAN, and was lost at sea with all 34 hands near what is now East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, on 14 September 1914 ( first officially reported missing on 21st September), after less than seven months in service – she was the first Australian naval ship to be lost in the war. Her role had been to attack German New Guinea. Search missions attempting to locate the wreck began in 1976. The submarine was found during the 13th search mission near the Duke of York Islands in December 2017.
In 1933, a stained-glass window commemorating the loss of AE1 was added to the naval chapel at Garden Island in Sydney. In September 2015, a floating sculpture to commemorate AE1 was unveiled outside the Australian National Maritime Museum. The sculpture takes the form of a stainless steel wreath, 6 metres in diameter, which projects patterns of light onto the water at night.
Gabriel McCarthy
1915 – The Formation of No. 24 Squadron Royal Flying Corps
The squadron was founded as No. 24 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps on 1 September 1915 at Hounslow Heath Aerodrome. It arrived in France equipped with D.H.2 fighters in February 1916 – making it the world’s first single-seat fighter squadron and by 1918 it had shot down 200 planes. The squadron’s logo is a blackcock, selected because of its speed and strength on the wing. The cock is in fighting attitude to suggest the squadron’s ability to turn itself into a war fighting unit at short notice, despite its current peacetime training role. Its motto, in omnia parati, translates as “ready for anything”.
Aryan Sharma
