Three score years and twenty

"A Red Baron squadron member shot down Walter Balmford's plane over German-occupied northern France in 1917. With a bullet hole in his windscreen, the plane's joystick useless, and his gunner Corporal Elliott badly wounded, Walter managed to fly the plane back across the front lines and land it safely. After the war, Walter became an actuary and migrated with his wife and two sons to Australia. He became the Commonwealth Actuary - a position now known as the Australian Government Actuary - working closely with the Treasurer (later Prime Minister) J.B. Chifley: the two became friends..." -- back cover.