Peter Isaacson
| Peter Stuart Isaacson | |
|---|---|
Flight Lieutenant Isaacson with Lancaster Q-for-Queenie, 1943
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|
| Born |
31 July 1920 London |
| Died | 7 April 2017 (aged 96) Melbourne |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Service/branch | Royal Australian Air Force |
| Years of service | 1940–46 (RAAF) 1946–69 (RAAF Reserve) |
| Rank | Wing Commander |
| Unit | RAF Bomber Command |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | |
| Other work | Publisher |
Peter Stuart Isaacson, AM, DFC, AFC, DFM (31 July 1920 – 7 April 2017) was an Australian publisher and decorated military pilot. He was the owner of Peter Isaacson Publications, publisher of various trade journals and suburban newspapers including the Southern Cross and the Sunday Observer in Melbourne. During World War II, he served in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a pilot with RAF Bomber Command and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force Cross and the Distinguished Flying Medal.
Isaacson grew up in Melbourne and started working for a newspaper when he was sixteen. He joined the RAAF in 1940. Following his stint in Bomber Command, he became well known in Australia for his tours in the Avro Lancaster Q-for-Queenie to promote the sale of war loans and, in particular, for flying his plane under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1943. He transferred to the RAAF Reserve after the war, retiring as a wing commander in 1969. From 1956 he served as a Trustee, Chairman, and finally Life Governor of the Victorian Shrine of Remembrance. In 1991 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his publishing and community work.
Isaacson was born in London on 31 July 1920 to an Australian father and an Austrian mother; his parents moved to Australia with him when he was six years old. Growing up in Melbourne, he was educated at Brighton Grammar School and started work at sixteen as a messenger boy on The Age, where his mother Caroline edited women's features. All of Isaacson's immediate family would eventually serve in World War II: his father, Arnold, a World War I veteran, joined the Volunteer Defence Corps, his mother became Public Relations Officer in the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), and his sister Joan became a photographer with the AWAS.
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