John Flynn (minister) for residents of the vast Australian outback, and established a number of bush hospitals. By 1917, Flynn was already considering the possibility of new technology, such as radio and aircraft, to assist in providing a more useful acute medical service, and then received a letter from an Australian pilot serving in World War I, Clifford Peel, who had heard of Flynn's speculations and outlined the capabilities and costs of then-available planes. This material was published in the church's magazine, the start of Flynn turning his considerable fund-raising talents to the task of establishing a flying medical service. The first flight
Thomas Flynn (Columban priest) the Philippines in 1948. On 30 October 1950, Flynn was taken from his parish in Labrador, Pangasinan, Philippines by Hukbalahap Communist guerrillas, and killed. He was 42 years old. In 2003 his remains were exhumed and interred in the family plot in Ballysheen, Co. Clare, In attendance at his interment were 30 Columban fathers and his sister, Sr Marie Flynn of the Medical Missionaries of Mary. Thomas Flynn (Columban priest) Rev. Thomas Flynn SSC, was an Irish missionary priest, who was killed by Hukbalahap communist rebels in 1950 in the Philippines. Thomas Flynn was born on 5 November 1908 in