Colin Hannah
Air Marshal Sir Colin Thomas Hannah, KCMG, KCVO, KBE, CB was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born in Western Australia, he was a member of the Militia before joining the RAAF in 1935. After graduating as a pilot, Hannah served in Nos. 22 and 23 Squadrons from 1936 to 1939. He then saw action in the South West Pacific as commander of No. 6 Squadron and, later, No 71 Wing.
About Colin Hannah in brief
Air Marshal Sir Colin Thomas Hannah, KCMG, KCVO, KBE, CB was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born in Western Australia, he was a member of the Militia before joining the RAAF in 1935. After graduating as a pilot, Hannah served in Nos. 22 and 23 Squadrons from 1936 to 1939. He then saw action in the South West Pacific as commander of No. 6 Squadron and, later, No 71 Wing, operating Bristol Beaufort bombers. At the end of World War II, Hannah was in charge of Western Area Command in Perth. He commanded RAAF Station Amberley, Queensland, in 1949–50, and saw service during the Malayan Emergency as senior air staff officer at RAF Far East Air Force Headquarters, Singapore, from 1956 to 1959. His other post-war appointments included Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1961 to 1965, Air Officer Commanding Operational Command from 1965 to 1967, and AOC Support Command from 1968 to 1969. In January 1970 he was promoted to air marshal and became Chief of The Air Staff. In 1972 he was appointed Governor of Queensland. He attracted controversy in this role after making comments critical of the Federal government of the day, and the British government refused to agree to his term being extended. Hannah retired in March 1977, and died the following year. He was the son of Thomas Howard Hannah, the local mining registrar and Clerk of Courts, and his wife Johanna Frame. His father was the Acting Magistrate of the Eastern Goldfields, and in 1939, Magistrates of the Local Court in Perth, and was also a Clerk of the Crown Law Department of the State Public Service.
He had a daughter, Patricia Gordon, with whom he had a son, Peter. Hannah was a keen golfer, and won the Australian Open Championship in 1936 and 1937. He also won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 1936. He died in December 1977, at the age of 80. He is buried at the University of Queensland, where he had served as an air cadet from 1935 to 1937. His wife, Patricia, is also a former Air Force officer, having served in No. 22 Squadron at RAAF station Richmond, New South Wales, and No. 23 Squadron at Laverton, Victoria, in May 1937. The couple had a child, Peter Hannah, who was born in 1938. He served with an Australian Militia unit, the 8th Field Artillery Brigade, from February 1933 to 1939, and became a clerk in the Crown law Department. In 1939 he was posted to Britain to undertake a Royal Air Force armaments training course, which he had barely begun when war was declared on 3 September. He completed the course, and returned to Australia in March 1940. In 1940 he was made an acting squadron leader in September 1940 and became Deputy Director of Armament the next year. In April 1942, Hannah was promoted to temporary wing commander. He undertook a general reconnaissance course the following May. In November 1943, Hannah was appointed commanding officer of No Â6 Squadron at Milne Bay, Papua, flying Bristol Beaufort light bombers.
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