Richard Williams (RAAF officer)
Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, KBE, CB, DSO is widely regarded as the “father” of the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first military pilot trained in Australia, and went on to command Australian and British fighter units in World War I. A proponent for air power independent of other branches of the armed services, Williams played a leading role in the establishment of the RAAF.
About Richard Williams (RAAF officer) in brief
Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, KBE, CB, DSO is widely regarded as the “father” of the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first military pilot trained in Australia, and went on to command Australian and British fighter units in World War I. A proponent for air power independent of other branches of the armed services, Williams played a leading role in the establishment of the RAAF. He served as CAS for thirteen years over three terms, longer than any other officer. After the war he was forcibly retired along with other World War I veteran officers, and took up the position of Director-General of Civil Aviation in Australia. Williams was knighted the year before his retirement in 1955, and was awarded the KBE for his services to aviation in the First World War, and the CB for his bravery in the Second World War. He died of a heart attack at the age of 83 in Sydney, Australia, in 1987. He is survived by his wife, Constance Esther Griffiths, and their four children. He has also been awarded the DSO for his service during World War II, as well as a KBE and a CB for services to the Australian Army and the Royal Air Force in the 1920s and 1930s. Williams is buried in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, with his wife Constance Griffiths and their three children. His great-great-grandson is Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who served as Air Force Chief of the Air Staff in the 1930s and 1940s.
He also served in the Australian House of Representatives and the Australian Senate. Williams has been knighted for his role in setting up Australia’s first military flying course in August 1914. He later became the first student to graduate as a pilot, on 12 November 1914, at Point Cook, Victoria, in a Bristol Boxkite. Williams rose to command No. 1 Squadron AFC, and later 40th Wing RAF, and finished the war as a lieutenant colonel. He wrote that in combat with the German Fokkers, “our fighting in the air was of short duration but could mean a quick end”, and that when it came to bombing, he and his fellow pilots “depended mainly on luck’. He recalled the school as a ‘ragtime show’ consisting of a paddock, tents, and one large structure: a shed for the Boxkites. Williams and the other Australians were initially involved in isolated tasks around the Suez Canal, attached to various Royal Flying Corps units. On 5 March 1917, shortly after commencing operations with No 1 Squadron, Williams narrowly avoided crash after his engine stopped while bombing the terminus at Tel elia. On 21 April 1917, Williams landed behind enemy lines to rescue his comrade Adrian Cole, having pressed home an anti-aircraft attack on Turkish cavalry. Within 500feet of the ground he was able to switch off the engine and return to base on return to the base.
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