Rusty LeitH AM DFC
Rusty LeitH AM DFC
An Australian Spitfire pilot’s wartime memorabilia and photos
Rusty's biography - Duty Done
Further information about this material and Rusty can be found in his biography Duty Done, available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.com
An extraordinary life
Russell Leith lived through extraordinary times, and he experienced extraordinary events. All of which experiences he had a remarkable skill in turning to positive benefit to himself and those around him, and in this way become an extraordinary person. Even the experiences which must have been unbearably painful.
Born in a sugar-growing village in the far-off island in the middle of the Pacific, he was packed off to boarding school across the ocean at the age of just 8. Seeing his parents three or fewer times a year, he remained in boarding schools in Fiji and then Australia till he was 15 when he was required to leave school to help support his family. Still only 15, he endured the experience of his mother collapsing and dying in front of him.
His father had fought in France in World War I. Barely 25 years later, Russell became a fighter pilot in Europe in World War II, flying the legendary Spitfire flghter plane in Scotland, England, France and the Netherlands.
After returning to Australia after victory in Europe had been won, he was confined in a tuberculosis sanitorium for a year and a half. And later, he endured the loss of the woman of his life, his wife Meg, followed by 27 years of faithful widowhood.
Those close to him know that these experiences took their toll on him, but at the same time made him stronger, kinder and wiser. In his unique brave way, he treated them as challenges he could overcome.
