Reg Stewart recollections
In 2008 Reg Stewart posted an article on the Smithsonian website which included the photograph reproduced here and describing the circumstances in which it had been taken. Reg grew up in Mount Isa, Queensland, about 400 miles NW of Longreach where Norman was based.
In subsequent email conversations with Norman's son, Geoff, and grandson, also Geoff, Reg added some additional commentary:
"That photo of your Grandfather was something that I had always been aware of since a small boy, and that I knew that my father valued. I remembered being told that he had crashed while we were at Mt Isa, and very little else, and as too often happens I did not pursue it any further. Dad just had so many stories from the old pioneer days to keep me interested. But I did remember that this photo must have been passed on to your Grandmother as I can recall some of her comments about it.
"But I found a little 120 print after his death and put it aside. I often idly wondered about his crash as I could not reconcile my memory with the often published "fact" that Qantas had never had a fatal accident involving a passenger. Even a member of the Smithsonian queried me on this point. I decided to settle this in my mind once and for all, and do some research on the subject.
"I could not find any reference to your Grandfather at all with much searching, and the reading of Qantas history, and nearly gave up, thinking that the story must have been a bit garbled in my mind. Then I found a reference in the outback Queensland deaths of 1934 to a Norman Chapman, Qantas pilot, killed in an aircraft accident. This spurred me on, and I then found a Newspaper article of the crash, dates, the passengers etc, and Registration numbers of the aircraft. From here on it was easy.
"After delving again into both Qantas and the old, and new, Civil Aviation etc data, I eventually found what I needed - together with a disclaimer from Qantas that acknowledged their claim of "no passenger deaths", but stating that this claim "only applied to the jet age".
"Personally I feel that your Grandfather was very poorly treated by both Qantas, and Civil Authorities who appeared to have a vested interest in keeping this myth alive for Qantas. His very existence with Qantas was conveniently buried, as was the history of even the aircraft itself in published historys of Qantas ( in the ones that I read at least ). Your Grandfather was a true aviation pioneer, and I feel his memory was rather shabbily treated for purely commercial reasons. He deserved much, much better than this."
Reg with Norman at Mt Isa, 1934
Reg also found in his records another press clipping of Norman, reproduced on the left here. It was taken in Benalla, Victoria in 1932.