Leonard Taplin

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Lieutenant Leonard Thomas Eaton Taplin qualified as a flying ace during World War I.

During his service in Palestine, he helped pioneer the use of aerial photography for cartography.

He then transferred to the Western Front and was credited with 12 official aerial victories.

Postwar, he was an aviation pioneer in Australia, and a leading citizen in his adopted hometown.

Taplin was born on 16 December 1895, his father was C.

E. Taplin, an architect. On 8 May 1907, while living in Malvern, the ten-year-old Taplin broke his arm playing leap frog at school.

In an early example of his courage, he first walked home, then a half mile to the doctor's, where he submitted to having the compound fractures of the bones in his arm set without anesthetic.

Taplin attended Prince Alfred College. After graduation, he took a job as assistant to his elder brother, who was engineer in charge of the Electrical Supply Company in Parramatta