Frank Hubert McNamara
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Air Vice Marshal Francis Hubert 'Frank' McNamara VC, CB, CBE (4 April 1894 – 2 November 1961) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
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[edit] Early life
He was born at Rushworth, Victoria, on 4 April 1894. Having completed his secondary schooling in Shepparton, McNamara studied teaching at the Teachers Training College and the University of Melbourne. He taught at a number of Victorian Schools and joined the Senior Cadets in 1911. The following year he transferred to the Brighton Rifles and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July 1913. In the early months of the First World War he served at Queenscliff and then Point Nepean before attending the Officers Training School at Broadmeadows. Between February and May 1915 he instructed at the AIF Training Depot at Broadmeadows.
[edit] Details
McNamara was 22 years old, and a Lieutenant in the 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 20 March 1917 in Egypt, during an aerial bomb attack, a pilot was forced to land behind enemy lines, with hostile cavalry approaching. Lieutenant McNamara, seeing the situation, came down through heavy fire to the rescue, despite the fact that he himself was wounded. He landed about 200 yards from the damaged plane, and the pilot climbed into his machine, but owing to his injury he could not keep it straight and it turned over. The two officers extricated themselves, set fire to the machine and made their way to the damaged one, which they succeeded in starting. Finally, Lieutenant McNamara, although weak from loss of blood, flew the machine back to the aerodrome (70 miles away).
[edit] Later life
McNamara enlisted in the newly established Royal Australian Air Force in 1921, where he later obtained the rank of Air Vice Marshal. In World War II McNamara served as Air Officer Commanding British Forces in Aden between 1942 and 1945. Francis Hubert McNamara died on the 2nd November 1961, he was buried at St Joseph’s Priory, Austin Wood, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England. His Victoria Cross is on display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra
[edit] References
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- VCs of the First World War - Air VCs (P G Cooksley, 1999)
