William Hely
Air Vice Marshal William Lloyd Hely, CB, CBE, AFC, was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Hely came to public attention in 1936 when he crashed on a survey flight in the Northern Territory, and later when he undertook two successful missions to locate missing aircraft in the same vicinity. His rescue efforts earned him the Air Force Cross. After occupying staff positions during the early years of World War II, Hely was appointed Officer Commanding No.72 Wing in Dutch New Guinea in May 1944.
About William Hely in brief
Air Vice Marshal William Lloyd Hely, CB, CBE, AFC, was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Hely came to public attention in 1936–37 when he crashed on a survey flight in the Northern Territory, and later when he undertook two successful missions to locate missing aircraft in the same vicinity. His rescue efforts earned him the Air Force Cross. After occupying staff positions during the early years of World War II, Hely was appointed Officer Commanding No.72 Wing in Dutch New Guinea in May 1944. He was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1953 to 1956, AOC Training Command from 1956 to 1957, and Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington, D.C. from 1957 to 1960. He retired from the Air force in 1966 and made his home in Canberra, where he died in 1970 at the age of sixty. The third child of Prosper Frederick Hely and his wife Alice, he was educated to Intermediate Certificate level at Mudgee, Wollongong and Rozelle Public Schools, and at Fort Street High School, Petersham. On 16 February 1927, he entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, as one of four cadets sponsored that year by the RAAF. He graduated as a lieutenant on 9 December 1930, and the following day enlisted in the R RAF. In April 1936, he took command of No. 3 Squadron’s North Australia Survey Flight, one of two such flights formed by the air force that month to carry out photographic surveys. In February 1937, he and his crew of two were found by RAAF search aircraft ten days later, on 22 April.
The aircraft was badly damaged and had to be transported back to Richmond in pieces, but Hely took part in the search for a missing Stinson airliner that was eventually found in the McPherson Range, Queensland. For its survey program, the former Flying Tugan Gannet’s first task force was divided into Western and Eastern Detachments, with Hely’s task force being the former Western Detachment. He became Air Member for Personnel for six years, his tenure coinciding with a significant increase in manpower to meet commitments in South East Asia and the demands of a major re-equipment program. In 1953 he was promoted acting air vice marshal in 1953, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1964 for his service as AMP. On 15 January 1931, he commenced his flying training course at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria, on 15 January 1931, graduating on 10 December. His early postings as a pilot in 1932 and 1933 were to RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, and RAAF station Laverton, Victoria. Qualifying in aerial photography, he served at Point Cook from 1933 to 1936, receiving promotion to flight lieutenant. On 10 April 1936 he became the first RAAF pilot to fly a twin-engined de Havilland Dragon Rapide, which was to be the flight’s base for its initial survey work in Western Australia.
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