SCHOLARSHIP
Rawdon Middleton VC Award
Rawdon Middleton VC Awards are given to 4 students from Year 10 continuing on to Dubbo College from feeder schools (Delroy High and South Dubbo High). Each prize is $250 and a certificate from the Bindyi Club which tells the story of Rawdon Middleton’s AO heroic death.
Rawdon Middleton was born on 22 July 1916 at Waverly in Sydney, a great-nephew of the explorer, Hamilton Hume. His family moved to the western districts of New South Wales when he was young. Like many students from Gilgandra, Middleton attended Dubbo High School. He boarded with different families to save the long commute each day.
In 1933, the school had a guest speaker, aviator Charles Ulm. Ulm had been part of Charles Kingsford-Smith’s party to complete several firsts – the first non-stop flight across Australia and the first flight from Australia to New Zealand. Perhaps this inspired him to become an pilot.
Middleton was an accomplished sportsman, representing the school in cricket and tennis but he was unable to complete his final year of high school at Dubbo. His father, Frank Middleton had to look for work out of the district and eventually found it at Sunnyside, a property located at Kentucky, 230 miles to the north east between Tamworth and Armidale.
He enlisted in the RAAF on 14 October 1940 under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Having learnt to fly at Narromine, New South Wales, Middleton was sent to Canada to continue his instruction. He reached Britain in September 1941 and was promoted to Flight Sergeant in December that year. In February 1942 Middleton was posted to 149 Squadron, Royal Air Force, and began his operational career. His first operational flights, to the Ruhr, were as second pilot in Stirling bombers but by July he had become first pilot. His first operation as captain of an aircraft was to Düsseldorf.
On 28 November 1942 he took off on his 29th operation, to the Fiat works in Turin, Italy. Middleton's aircraft was struck by flak over the target, one shell exploded in the cockpit wounding Middleton in the face and destroying his right eye.
The same shell also wounded the second pilot and wireless operator. Middleton lost consciousness and the aircraft dived to just 800 feet before the second pilot brought it under control. They were hit by more flak as they tried to escape the target.
When Middleton regained consciousness he began the long and gruelling flight back over the Alps towards England, knowing that his damaged aircraft had insufficient fuel to complete the journey. The crew discussed the possibility of abandoning the aircraft or trying to land in northern France but Middleton decided to head for England where his crew would have the chance to bail out.
As they approached the French coast the Stirling was again hit by flak but flew on. Now over the English coast with only five minutes of fuel left Middleton ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft. Five men left the stricken plane, and two remained on board to help Middleton before attempting to parachute to safety, although unfortunately both were drowned. The Stirling then crashed into the sea, killing Middleton. He was only one operation away from completing his first tour on bombers.
Middleton's bravery was recorded in the English press and earned him the admiration of the British public and a posthumous Victoria Cross. His body washed ashore at Dover on 1 February 1943 and he was buried in the churchyard of St. John's, Beck's Row, Suffolk, with full military honours.
Various quotations have been used to describe Middleton’s actions, the obvious biblical one “Greater love hath no man”, or even his own VC citation “an example of courage and devotion to duty unsurpassed even in the history of the Royal Air Force”. Middleton’s family had an ancient heraldic crest, and its centuries-old motto never found a more apt demonstration than it did that night: “True till the end”.
Rawdon Middleton VC was honoured in 1995 on one of the Australia Remembers 45c Postage Stamp series.