Education and Early Career
Wilfred Arthur was the son of a stock inspector from Goondiwindi, Queensland, a veteran of World War I who had served overseas for the duration of the conflict. Born in Sydney on 7 December 1919, Wilf grew up around his father's home town near the New South Wales border. The boy's initial education was by correspondence, but he later attended school at Yelarbon, Queensland, commuting on horseback. He then spent four-and-a-half years at The Scots College in Warwick, where he matriculated.
At the age of 19 and still at The Scots College, Arthur applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He enlisted on 4 September 1939, the day after Australia's entry into World War II. Training at RAAF Station Point Cook, Victoria, and RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, he was commissioned a pilot officer on 30 March 1940, despite being prone to airsickness early on. He served initially with No. 22 (City of Sydney) Squadron at Richmond, operating Hawker Demons and Avro Ansons.
Read more about this topic: Wilfred Arthur
Famous quotes containing the words education and, education, early and/or career:
“I say that male and female are cast in the same mold; except for education and habits, the difference is not great.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.”
—Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)
“[My early stories] are the work of a living writer whom I know in a sense, but can never meet.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)