The church dedicated to St. James was constructed by a local builder, architect unknown, and opened by the Bishop of Ballarat in 1953. An earlier church was destroyed, along with most the town, in the devastating bush fires of January 1944. The pair of windows, installed at either side of the altar in the new church, were believed to be commissioned by Mrs. 'Peggy' Fairbairn, widow of James Fairbairn of Mount Elephant Station, Derrinallum, from Geoffrey Clarke (1924- ). Clarke wasone of a team, with Lawrence Lee and Keith New, who designed windows for the post-Second World War re-construction of Coventry Cathedral, England. The Derinallum windows were conceived in a similar Modernist style that useda sombre blue, grey and white palette. Thewindow with the Dove of the Holy Spirit could be interpreted as a large aeroplane shown head-on, rather than a bird, while the symbols of the church's patron in St. James in the second panel, might also symbolise remembrance to James Fairbairn. The two panels are Clarke's only known works in Australia.
In June 2014, the windows were removed from the Anglican Church at Derrinallum in anticipation of their re-location to the library of Geelong Grammar School, Corio where the Fairbairn family has had a long association.
On leaving Geelong Grammar (1908-15) James Valentine Fairbairn (1897-1940) enlisted for active service in England and was accepted into the Royal Flying Corps. Only months later, in February 1917 he was shot down between Cambrai and St. Quentin and captured by the Germans. Hespent two years as a prisoner of war. Returning to Australia in 1919, he soon resumed a life on the land and contiued to fly, despite a badly damaged right arm, an injury sustained when he was shot down in France. He was elected to the Hampden Shire Council in 1930, the Legislative Assembly two years later and then to the House of Representatives as the Member for Flinders, regularly flying himself between his home and Canberra as well as overseas. Recognised as an authority on aviation, he was Minister for Civil Aviation in the Menzies government and, after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, was one of the instigators of the Empire Air Training Scheme. It was a tragedy for the entire country that he was killed on 13 August 1940, with his private secretary, two other cabinet ministers, Brigadier G.A. Street, Minister for the Army and Repatriation and Sir Henry Gullett, Vice-President of the Executive Council, the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Brudenell White and his staff officer, when their plane crashed not far fromCanberra airport, also killing the crew of four: Flight Lieutenant Richard Hitchcock, Pilot Officer Richard Wiesener, Corporal John Palmer and Aircraftman Charles Crosdale. A memorial was erected close to the site on the outskirts of Canberra.
References & Acknowledgements
Adelaide Advertiser, 14 August 1940, p.15; Camperdown Chronicle, 5 April 1946, p.3; 21 July 1947, p.1; 24 August 1954, p.6; The Chronicle (Anglican Diocese of Ballarat), Vol. 124, No. 3, Jume 2014; Collins Persse, Michael D. de B., 'Fairbairn, James Valentine (Jim) (1897-1940)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, ANU.
With thanks to Mrs. Virginia Mercer and Susan Hawker
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