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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 1324 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
I think the fact that we do have native trees in our streets is also due to his open vision of our natural landscape or treescape. We are really privileged to have had someone with such vision because, as everyone has said, we are fortunate enough to have a city which is indeed very beautiful. I join with other members, as I said, in expressing sympathy to the family and in honouring his work.
MR SPEAKER: Before I ask members to acknowledge this motion, I would like to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of some of the late Professor Pryor's family.
Question resolved in the affirmative, members standing in their places.
MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, I move:
That the Assembly expresses its deep regret at the death of Admiral Sir Victor Smith, AC, KBE, CB, DSC, who made a significant contribution to the naval and sporting communities in the Territory and tenders its profound sympathy to his widow and family in their bereavement.
Mr Speaker, I ask members to acknowledge a motion of condolence in respect of the late Admiral Sir Victor Trumper Smith whose recent death was a great and sad loss to the community in which we live. I was honoured to know Sir Victor as a result of our association with sport in the Territory. Sir Victor was patron of the ACT Rugby League during my term as league president. He also officially opened the building which houses the ACT Leagues Club of which I was the foundation president. It also was an honour for me to represent the citizens of the ACT and the Government at the funeral of a man who was a great Canberran and a great Australian who will be sadly missed by a large circle of friends, associates, his widow, Lady Smith, children and grandchildren.
Mr Speaker, Admiral Sir Victor Trumper Smith, AC, KBE, CB, DSC, RAN Retired, was born in Sydney on 9 May 1913. He was named after his uncle, Victor Trumper, the great Australian cricketer. He entered the Royal Australian Naval College in 1927 as a cadet midshipman, and became a midshipman in 1931, a sublieutenant in 1934 and a lieutenant in 1936. His first ship was the cruiser, HMAS Canberra.
After deciding to specialise in naval aviation, he won his wings as an observer in 1937. He flew from the aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Ark Royal, and at HMS Sparrowhawk, the Royal Navy Air Station at Hallston. While based at Sparrowhawk he was mentioned in dispatches for leading a daring air torpedo raid by six Swordfish biplanes against the German battleship Scharnhorst off the Norwegian coast. Back on Ark Royal in 1941, Victor Smith was awarded the DSC for outstanding zeal, patience and cheerfulness, and for setting an example of whole-hearted devotion to duty.
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