Air Marshal Sir James Anthony Rowland, AC, KBE, DFC, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first engineering officer to lead the RAAF, and the first man to personally command it in a legal sense. Rowland was born in Armidale, NSW, on 1 November 1922. He served as a bomber pilot with the Pathfinders in the air war over Europe, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944.
About James Rowland (RAAF officer) in brief
Air Marshal Sir James Anthony Rowland, AC, KBE, DFC, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first engineering officer to lead the RAAF, and the first man to personally command it in a legal sense. He later held office as Governor of New South Wales from 1981 to 1989, and was Chancellor of the University of Sydney from 1990 to 1991. Rowland was born in Armidale, NSW, on 1 November 1922. He served as a bomber pilot with the Pathfinders in the air war over Europe, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner and was scheduled to be executed but was saved by two Luwwaffe officers who had held him in solitary confinement. After repatriation and demobilisation, Rowland gained his engineering degree and rejoined RAAF. He became a test pilot, serving with and later commanding the Aircraft Research and Development Unit in the 1950s. He also was closely involved in preparations for delivery to Australia of the Dassault Mirage III supersonic fighter in the 1960s. In 1972 he was promoted to air vice marshal and became Air Member for Technical Services, holding this post until his elevation to air Marshal and appointment as CAS in March 1975. He retired from the Air Force in 1979 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1987. He died in Sydney, Australia, on 2 December 1991. He is buried in the Sydney suburb of Waverly, near his family’s home in northern Sydney.
He had three brothers and three sisters. Rowlands was the son of Louis Rowland and his wife Elsie. He grew up with his three brothers on the family’s 3,000-acre rural property, and went to school via correspondence before completing his secondary education at Cranbrook, Sydney. In May 1942 he enlisted in the. RAAF as a pilot under the Empire Air Training Scheme. In early 1943 he underwent service flying training in Canada. In 1949 he was posted to Britain, where he converted to Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. In 1952 he was appointed chief test pilot at the Empire Pilots’ School in Britain. In 1953 he rejoined Australia as a member of the newly formed RAAF Technical Branch. In 1963 he was made Chief of the Air Staff, serving as Chief of Air Staff from 1975 to 1979. In 1984 he became the first Australian to hold the post of Air Marshal. In 1986 he was awarded the KBE and the CBE for services to the Australian Air Forces. In 1988 he was knighted by the Queen for his services to Australia and the Commonwealth. In 1989 he became Governor of NSW and held the Chancellorship of the. University of. Sydney until his retirement in 1989. His last public appearance was in a speech at the Sydney Opera House in November 1989. He has been awarded a knighthood for his contributions to Australian aviation.
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