Peter Isaacson Peter Stuart Isaacson AM , DFC , AFC , DFM ( born 31 July 1920 ) is an Australian publisher and decorated military pilot . He was owner of Peter Isaacson Publications , the publisher of various trade publications and suburban newspapers including the " Southern Cross " and the " Sunday Observer " in Melbourne . He served in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) as a pilot with RAF Bomber Command during World War II 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 . Since 1956 he has 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 . Early life . 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 . World War II . On 8 December 1940 the nineteen - year - old Isaacson enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) . After completing his training in Australia and Canada , he was posted to the United Kingdom and joined No . 460 Squadron RAAF at RAAF Breighton , Yorkshire , as a sergeant pilot . Operating Vickers Wellington medium bombers , No . 460 Squadron had been raised under the Article XV provisions of the Empire Air Training Scheme and was one of a number of nominally Australian formations taking part in RAF Bomber Command ' s strategic air campaign against Germany . The squadron commenced operations in March 1942 and participated in 1 , 000 - bomber raids against Cologne , Essen and Bremen in May and June . It converted to Avro Lancaster heavy bombers in October . Isaacson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal on 6 November 1942 for " many successful night attacks on the enemy " with No . 460 Squadron . The following month his Lancaster was damaged by a Junkers Ju 88 night fighter after a raid on Munich . Commissioned as a pilot officer , Isaacson was subsequently posted to No . 156 Squadron RAF of the Pathfinder Force , based at RAF Warboys , Huntingdonshire . He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 30 March 1943 for his actions during a raid on Berlin . His citation , promulgated in the " London Gazette " , read : Isaacson completed forty - five sortie s with Bomber Command , when the likelihood of surviving an operational tour of thirty missions was never more than 50 % and , at times , much less . Promoted to acting flight lieutenant , he was chosen in May 1943 to captain Lancaster " Q - for - Queenie " on a landmark flight from England to Australia across the Pacific Ocean , and then from Melbourne to New Zealand and back , non - stop in both directions . He was awarded the Air Force Cross on 27 August 1943 for this mission , the citation noting that it was " the first occasion on which an aircraft has flown to Australia by this route and the direct flights between Melbourne and New Zealand are the first of their kind " . The Lancaster was brought to Australia so that it could serve as a template for local production of the type , but this never took place and it was instead used for exhibition flights to encourage purchase of war bond s . On 22 October 1943 Isaacson flew " Q - for - Queenie " under the Sydney Harbour Bridge , flouting a 1931 regulation that prohibited such activity ; the Lancaster remains the largest aircraft to have been flown under the bridge . Isaacson gave his crew no warning of what he was about to do and when asked later why he did it , replied " Because it was there " . It was , however , reported at the time that he undertook the stunt to support the war loan effort for which he and his crew were actively fundraising . Notwithstanding the publicity the escapade generated for war loans , Isaacson recalled that when he landed at Mascot afterwards : In December 1943 , following his promotional tour with his crew in " Q - for - Queenie " , he settled down to instructional work at an operational training unit before undertaking a further tour in the Lancaster commencing in March 1944 . Post - war career . Isaacson stood as the Liberal candidate for Prahran in the November 1945 Victorian state election , but was defeated by Labor ' s William Quirk . His wartime commission was terminated on 21 February 1946 and he transferred to the RAAF Reserve . He was state commandant of the Victorian Squadron of the Air Training Corps from 1950 , and commandant of No . 21 ( City of Melbourne ) Squadron from 1961 , before retiring in 1969 with the rank of wing commander . He also served as an honorary aide - de - camp to Queen Elizabeth II from 1963 to 1965 . After working as aviation correspondent for " The Argus " in Melbourne , Isaacson set up his first newspaper , the " Advertiser " , in 1947 ; he established Peter Isaacson Publications the same year . The " Advertiser " took over other community newspapers and became the " Southern Cross " , which Isaacson edited and published along with " Sunday Observer " and various business and industry magazines . In 1986 Peter Isaacson Publications took over the Asher Joel Media Group . " Southern Cross " was bought by APN News & Media in 1993 and Isaacson became APN ' s director , serving until 1998 . He chaired TW Media from 1997 to 2005 . Isaacson married Anne McIntyre in Melbourne on 21 December 1950 . The couple , who had known each other since their teens , had delayed their wedding during Anne ' s five - year struggle with polio and Isaacson carried his future bride to the registry office on the day . The marriage produced two sons . On 10 June 1991 Isaacson was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia " for services to the print media and the community " . He published " As I Remember Them : Men and Women Who Shaped a Life " , a collection of eulogies he had delivered for friends and colleagues , in 2012 . In May of that year he was among a group of thirty - two veterans selected to attend the dedication of the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in London as part of the official Australian delegation . Isaacson is a Life Governor of the Victorian Shrine of Remembrance , having previously served as a Trustee from 1956 to 2000 , and Chairman from 1983 to 2000 . He and his wife live in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak .