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Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)
Charles Eaton, OBE, AFC (21 December 1895 – 12 November 1979) was a senior officer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), who later served as a diplomat. Born in London, he joined the British Army upon the outbreak of World War I and saw action on the Western Front before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. Posted as a bomber pilot to No. 206 Squadron, he was twice captured by German forces, and twice escaped. Eaton left the military in 1920 and worked in India until moving to Australia in 1923. Two years later he joined the RAAF, serving initially as an instructor at No. 1 Flying Training School. Between 1929 and 1931, he was chosen to lead three expeditions to search for lost aircraft in Central Australia, gaining national attention and earning the Air Force Cross for his "zeal and devotion to duty".
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Eaton became the inaugural commanding officer of No. 12 (General Purpose) Squadron at the newly established RAAF Station Darwin in Northern Australia. Promoted group captain the following year, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1942. He took command of No. 79 Wing at Batchelor, Northern Territory, in 1943, and was mentioned in despatches during operations in the South West Pacific. Retiring from the RAAF in December 1945, Eaton took up diplomatic posts in the Dutch East Indies, heading a United Nations commission as Consul-General during the Indonesian National Revolution. He returned to Australia in 1950, and served in Canberra for a further two years. Popularly known as "Moth" Eaton, he was a farmer in later life, and died in 1979 at the age of 83. He is commemorated by several memorials in the Northern Territory.
==Early life and World War I==
Charles Eaton was born on 21 December 1895 in Lambeth, London, the son of William Walpole Eaton, a butcher, and his wife Grace. Schooled in Wandsworth, Charles worked in Battersea Town Council from the age of fourteen, before joining the London Regiment upon the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.〔(Eaton, Charles (1895–1979) ) at Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. Retrieved 16 March 2013.〕 Attached to a bicycle company in the 24th Battalion of the 47th Division, he arrived at the Western Front in March 1915. He took part in trench bombing missions and attacks on enemy lines of communication, seeing action in the Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, Loos, and the Somme.〔
On 14 May 1915, Eaton transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), undergoing initial pilot training at Oxford. While he was landing his Maurice Farman Shorthorn at the end of his first solo flight, another student collided with him and was killed, but Eaton emerged uninjured.〔 He was commissioned in August and was awarded his wings in October. Ranked lieutenant, he served with No. 110 Squadron, which operated Martinsyde G.100 "Elephant" fighters out of Sedgeford, defending London against Zeppelin airships.〔〔(P03531.004 ) at Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 16 March 2013.〕 Transferred to the newly formed Royal Air Force (RAF) in April 1918, he was posted the following month to France flying Airco DH.9 single-engined bombers with No. 206 Squadron.〔 On 29 June, he was shot down behind enemy lines and captured in the vicinity of Nieppe. Incarcerated in Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp, Germany, Eaton escaped but was recaptured and court-martialled, after which he was kept in solitary confinement. He later effected another escape and succeeded in rejoining his squadron in the final days of the war.〔〔Grose, ''An Awkward Truth'', p. 51〕
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