Frank Headlam
Frank Headlam, CB, CBE was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born and educated in Tasmania, he joined the RAAF as an air cadet in January 1934. He specialised in flying instruction and navigation before the outbreak of World War II. In April 1941, he became commanding officer of No. 2 Squadron, which operated Lockheed Hudsons.
About Frank Headlam in brief
Frank Headlam, CB, CBE was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born and educated in Tasmania, he joined the RAAF as an air cadet in January 1934. He specialised in flying instruction and navigation before the outbreak of World War II. In April 1941, he became commanding officer of No. 2 Squadron, which operated Lockheed Hudsons. The squadron was deployed to Dutch Timor in December, and saw action against Japanese forces in the South West Pacific. After returning to Australia in February 1942, Headlam held staff appointments and training commands, finishing the war a group captain. He served as Officer Commanding North-Western Area in 1946, and as Director of Training from 1947 to 1950. In 1950–51, during the Malayan Emergency, he was stationed at Singapore as commander of No 90 Wing and, later, RAF Tengah. Promoted air vice marshal, he successively held the positions of Air Officer Commanded Operational Command in 1961–62, AOC No. 224 Group RAF from 1962 to 1965 during the Indonesia–Malaysia Konfrontasi, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in 1965–66, and AOC Support Command in 1966–67. He retired from the Air Force and died in Melbourne five years later. Headlam had a son and a daughter; the couple had a daughter and a son-in-law, both of whom died in infancy.
He was a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1965, and a Commander of the British Empire in 1958. He died on 15 July 1971, at the age of 69, in Melbourne, Victoria. He is buried at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Frankston, Victoria, with his wife, Katherine, and their two children, a son, a daughter, and two step-grandchildren. His funeral service was held on 17 July 1971 at the St Paul’s Church, Frankston. His son and daughter are buried at the Anglican Anglican church in Frankstons, Melbourne, with their daughter, Catherine, at St. Paul’s Church in St Paul, Melbourne. He has a daughter who died in childbirth in 1998. He also has a son who was born on 15 July 1914 in Launceston, Tasmania, and died on 17 July 2014 at the same age. He had a grandson who died on 18 September 2014 at age 83. He and his wife had a step-daughter, Catherine Headlam-Smith, who died of cancer on 17 September 2014, at age 80. His great-great-grandson, Peter, was also a former RAAF officer and served in the Second World War. He passed the navigation course with a special distinction. He wrote a paper on national defence in which he suggested that with strong air forces, naval forces, and fixed defences, Australia may be made practically invulnerable.
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This page is based on the article Frank Headlam published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
