Oscar Garden


Oscar Garden was a New Zealand aviator and horticulturist. He was born in Tongue, Sutherlandshire, Scotland on 21 August 1903. On 16 October 1930, he embarked on a flight from an aerodrome in London, England, to Wyndham Aerodrome in Western Australia. Before the 18-day flight in a second-hand De Havilland Gypsy Moth, he had only 40 hours' solo flying experience. He flew in concert with Mrs Victor Bruce from Jask, Iran, to Rangoon, Burma, part of her record-setting air-sea circumnavigation.
Garden later went on to become chief pilot and operations manager of Tasman Empire Airways Limited, the forerunner to Air New Zealand.
In 2019 his daughter, Mary Garden's book, Sundowner of the Skies: The Story of Oscar Garden, The Forgotten Aviator was published by New Holland.