The demand for war memorial furniture here in Australia has been so great, for so long, that it’s now difficult to obtain the military-grade anchors, propellers and guns that were once the entitlement of every R.S.L. club. Next-best-things, such as diminutive Cessna propellers which began appearing on memorials some decades ago, have now become acceptable substitutes for the once commonplace P&W giants.
With memorial accessories tending to become smaller, and increasingly modern, it was something of a surprise to find this 1932 Gipsy IIIA metal propellor adorning the newish Beerwah war memorial in south-eastern Queensland.
The IIIA was the first inverted Gipsy, eventually fitted to a large number of aircraft including the DH Chipmunk. The blade tips on this particular propeller have been squared off and slightly shortened at some time, indicating that it could have been damaged. Still though, perhaps such an early – and uncommon – blade as this deserves to be preserved?
