Frank Bladin
Air Vice Marshal Francis Masson Bladin, CB, CBE was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born in rural Victoria, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1920. He transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1923, and learned to fly at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. He held training appointments before taking command of No. 1 Squadron in 1934.
About Frank Bladin in brief
Air Vice Marshal Francis Masson Bladin, CB, CBE was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born in rural Victoria, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1920. Bladin transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1923, and learned to fly at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. He held training appointments before taking command of No. 1 Squadron in 1934. Quiet but authoritative, he was nicknamed “Dad” in tribute to the concern he displayed for the welfare of his personnel. He was among the coterie of senior officers who helped reshape the post-war RAAF. He retired to his country property in 1953, and was active for many years in veterans’ affairs before his death in 1978 at the age of seventy-nine. He is buried in Cootamundra, New South Wales, with his wife, Patricia Magennis, and their three children, a son, a daughter and a son-in-law. He died of natural causes at his home in Yass, NSW, in 1978, aged seventy-seven. He had been a member of the RAAF since the early 1920s, and served as its Chief of Staff in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He also served in the Second World War as Air Officer Commanding North-Western Area. He earned the U.S. Silver Star for gallantry during the First World War. In July 1943, Bladin was posted to No 38 Group RAF in Europe, where he was mentioned in despatches.
In 1946, he became acting air vice marshal in 1946, and a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1950. He wrote an article on Empire air defence in 1931 for Royal Air Force Quarterly, one of the few published pieces of work on air power produced by RAAF officers in the pre-war years. He married Patricia Mag Dennis in December 1927; the couple had a son and two daughters. He passed away at his country home in 1978 after a long battle with cancer. He left behind a wife and four children, all of whom are still living. He has been buried at Yass in NSW, with a wife, two daughters, and two sons. He will be buried at Coot amundra in rural NSW, next to his son, David Bladin and his daughter, Emily Bladin. He never had any children of his own, and his wife died of cancer in 1998, aged 80. He leaves behind a son David Bladin, who served in World War II as an airman in the Australian Army, and three daughters, Emily and Emily Bladini. He served in Europe as a flight lieutenant, and later as an Air Officer. He attended RAF Staff College, Andover, and wrote a piece on EmpireAir Defence in 1931. In 1937 he was promoted to wing, and in 1938 he was appointed Assistant Chief Staff of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.
You want to know more about Frank Bladin?
This page is based on the article Frank Bladin published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
