A LITTLE HISTORY OF TC 7344

By Jim Shade

My search for the provenance of TC 7344 produced an unexpected result. I bought the car in 1997 from a private party here in southern California who had purchased it in 1985 from another private party. It turned out that owner had since passed on and his widow had no recollection of the date or source of her late husband's purchase. --- The trail ended there. There was however a NSW Australia registration decal on the windscreen, and as a member of "T-ABCs Forever" (www.mg-tabc.org), I was able to pose my quest to over 500 TC owners in twenty-four countries. T-ABC member Jeff Newey resides in Australia and has import records of all TCs shipped into to NSW. His record disclosed that 7344 arrived in Sydney Australia on 4 March 1949 and had been sold new to Hughy Hemsworth on March 11, 1949. Jeff located relatives of Hughy Hemsworth and learned that he had passed on, but according to his sister, Hughy had served with the RAAF.

HUGH HEMSWORTH

After receiving the above information, I surfed the web and found that Hughy was in fact Hugh George Ellard Hemsworth, born April 6, 1922, enlisted RAAF July 19, 1941 and had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross "In October, 1944, he captained an aircraft detailed to attack Cologne and, when approaching the target, considerable anti-aircraft fire was encountered. Nevertheless, he maintained a long, straight bombing run to attack the target accurately. The aircraft sustained damage, but he flew it to base."

                                   
   

          
467th Squadron RAAF Distinguished Flying Cross    Hugh Hemsworth   RAAF Association
(decal now on my windscreen)

                                                                                                 
                               
After discharge from the RAAFon July 1, 1947, Hugh flew thirty-four years with Qantas Airline as a senior pilot. retiring on September 23, 1977. Quantas pilot Richard Jennings knew Hugh and described him as a very talented pilot, respected by his peers for the way he handled an aircraft.  Jennings further related that Hugh's other passion was classic cars and at one time drove an early model either Rolls Royce or Bentley. Lastly, Jennings related that Hugh had three brothers who had also been with the RAAF; John, Neville and Godfrey.  Their bios are also noteworthy:


John Hemsworth -- John born in 1907 was the eldest of the four brothers. He was an RAAF Flight Lieutenant assigned to an airfield construction unit in north Africa, sometimes so close to the front that they found themselves behind enemy lines. At the end of the war he returned to Australia and was appointed Manager of the Broken Hill and Melbourne offices of the Australian National Airlines. He died in 1997.


Neville Hemsworth -- http://www.aerothentic.com/articles/HudsonsVsOscars.htm - paragraph 13:

Flight-Lieutenant Neville G. Hemsworth was attacked by several Ki-43s just after takeoff. Hemsworth could have refrained from taking off, but with wounded evacuees aboard he chose to get airborne and then stay low to evade his attackers. Infantryman Peter Bowden was one the wounded aboard; He recalls: "Whilst we were in the air we were hit by the Zeros' firing and the rear gunner at that stage, I presume, had been hit, also bullets were coming fairly thick and fast. The pilot told me afterwards he could feel them pinging on the back of his armour on his seat. He remained at the controls and brought the plane down with the controls on fire. He got fairly burnt about the face and hands. Without his actions I don't think we would have got down. We would have just dived into the sea. I'm sure of that. So, you know, I really owe a lot to him." 


GODFREY HEMSWORTH -- Godfrey Ellard Hemsworth flew Empire Flying boats with Qantas until the outbreak of war in 1939 when the Australian government requisitioned two `C` class flying boats and their crews from Qantas to form 11 Squadron RAAF. The boats were converted for war use in 5 days and on 25 September 1939 left for active service operations in the north of Australia. One of the pilots of No 11 Squadron was Godfrey Hemsworth. Sadly Godfrey's Catalina was shot down by the Japanese in 1942 and he was beaten to death on the deck of the destroyer that picked him up."."

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My quest for previous ownership of TC-7344 may not have produced the expected result, but it has indeed turned out to be an interesting project !

Jim Shade West Covina CA
FDShade@aol.com