Oscar Garden

Oscar Garden (21 August 1903–2 June 1997) was a New Zealand aviator and horticulturist. He was born in Tongue, Sutherlandshire, Scotland on 21 August 1903.^[1] On 16 October 1930, he embarked on a flight from an aerodrome in London, England, to Wyndham Aerodrome in Western Australia. Before the 18-day flight in a second-hand De Havilland Gypsy Moth, he had only 40 hours' solo flying experience. He flew in concert with Mrs Victor Bruce from Jask, Iran, to Rangoon, Burma, part of her record-setting air-sea circumnavigation.^[2]

In February 1931, Garden became the first to land a plane on Stewart Island, recalled here New Zealand Geographic ^[3]

In February 2021, 90 years after the historic landing on Stewart Island, there was a re-enactment, but this time in a Tiger Moth reported in Stuff

Garden went on to become chief pilot, mainly on Short Empire flying boats, and later operations manager for Tasman Empire Airways Ltd, the forerunner to Air New Zealand.^[4][5]

A major feature article "Sundowner of the Skies - Mary Garden takes flight with her father" on his 1930 flight from England to Australia was published in the Australian Financial Review in 2005.

In 2019, "Sundowner of the Skies: The Story of Oscar Garden, The Forgotten Aviator" was published by New Holland.^[6] This book was written by his daughter Mary Garden, who had been researching her father's life since 2005. It was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's History Award 2020 for a book of international significance.^[7] There have been many reviews and articles, not only in Australia but also New Zealand, Scotland and other countries, such as this one in Australia's national newspaper by Ross Fitzgerald; Garry Shilson-Josling's Australian Aviation magazine; Leigh Robshaw's Salt and Rosalie Crawford's The Weekend Sun .^[8] Mary wrote about the success of her book and her journey of discovery for The Guardian

Mr Graeme Hoete, an acclaimed Māori artist, has created a mural of Oscar Garden, now on display at Tauranga Airport, New Zealand. Graeme learned about Oscar’s story through Ingrid (Alys) Wicksteed (the daughter of Mary Revfeim, a close friend of Oscar 's wife Helen). Ingrid had urged Graeme to do a portrait of Oscar and gave him a copy of Sundowner of the Skies. He 'was pretty much blown away' with Oscar's story. The mural was unveiled on 11 August 2019 with Oscar's daughter Mary and other family members present.

In October 2020, Oscar's youngest daughter Annamaria Aurelia Garden (her birth name was Anna Margaret but she later changed it) self-published her own book "Oscar Garden: A Tale of One Man’s Love of Flying". She apparently drew on her older sister's book as well as her numerous articles, and the collection Mary Garden had gifted to Auckland's Museum of Technology and Transport (MOTAT) in January 2019. The book is poorly written, badly researched and hagiographical, with numerous errors and a failure to attribute sources. Mary argues that her father’s contribution to aviation has been seriously undermined by her sister's book and cannot understand why it was written.^[9] She has obtained expert legal advice and is considering her options going forth in regards to rights, in particular copyright infringement.

References[]

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