Richard Williams (RAAF officer)

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Richard Williams
3 August 1890 – February 7, 1980 (aged 89)
Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams
Nickname	"Dicky"
Place of birth	Moonta Mines, South Australia
Place of death	Melbourne, Victoria
Allegiance	Commonwealth of Australia
Service/branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Years of service	1909–1946
Rank	Air Marshal
Commands held	No. 1 Squadron AFC (1917–1918) No. 40 Wing RAF (1918–1919) Chief of the Air Staff (1922, 1925–1932, 1934–1939) RAAF Overseas HQ (1941–1942)
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight Commander of the British Empire Companion of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (2)
Other work	Director-General of Civil Aviation (1946–1955)

Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams KBE, CB, DSO (3 August 1890 – 7 February 1980) is widely regarded as the 'father' of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He was the first military pilot to be trained in Australia, and went on to command Australian and British fighter units in World War I. A leading proponent for air power independent of other branches of the armed services, Williams played a major role in the birth of the RAAF and became its first Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) in 1922. He served as CAS for 13 years over three terms, longer than any other officer.

Williams came from a working class background in South Australia. He was a Lieutenant in the Army when he learned to fly at Point Cook, Victoria in 1914. As a pilot with the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) in World War I, he rose to command No. 1 Squadron AFC, and later No. 40 Wing RAF. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and finished the war a Lieutenant Colonel. Afterwards he campaigned for an Australian Air Force run separately to the Army and Navy, which came into being in 1921.

The embryonic RAAF faced numerous challenges to its continued existence in the 1920s and early 1930s, and Williams received much of the credit for maintaining its independence. However an adverse report on flying safety standards saw him dismissed from the position of CAS and seconded to the RAF on the eve of World War II. Despite support in various quarters for his reinstatement as Air Force chief, and promotion to Air Marshal in 1940, he never again commanded the RAAF. After the war he was forcibly retired along with a number of other World War I veteran officers. He took up the position of Director-General of Civil Aviation in Australia, serving until his retirement in 1955.

[edit] Early career

Richard and Constance Williams, c. 1915

Richard Williams was born in Moonta, South Australia, the son of a copper miner who had emigrated from Cornwall, England.^[1] After leaving secondary school he worked as a telegraph messenger and then as a bank clerk. He enlisted in a militia unit, the South Australian Infantry Regiment, in 1909 at the age of 19. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 5th Australian Infantry Regiment on 5 March 1911, joining the Permanent Military Forces the following year.^[2]

In August 1914 Lieutenant Williams participated in Australia's inaugural military flying course at Central Flying School in Point Cook, Victoria, becoming the first student to graduate on 12 November 1914.^[3] Following completion of an administrative and instructional posting he underwent advanced flying training at Point Cook in July 1915. The next month he married Constance Esther Griffiths, who was 13 years his senior. The couple had no children.^[4]

[edit] World War I

Williams was promoted Captain on 5 January 1916 and appointed a flight commander in No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (AFC). The unit departed Australia in March 1916 without any aircraft; after arriving in Egypt it received B.E.2 fighters, a type lacking forward-firing machine guns. Williams 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 he and his fellow pilots "depended mainly on luck".^[5][6] Williams and the other Australians were initially involved in isolated tasks around the Suez Canal, attached to various Royal Flying Corps units. No. 1 Squadron began to operate concertedly in December 1916, supporting the Allied advance on Palestine.^[7] Williams rejoined it in February 1917.^[2]

Major Williams as Commanding Officer of No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, 1917

Shortly after commencing operations with No. 1 Squadron, Williams narrowly avoided crash-landing when his engine stopped while he was bombing the railway terminus at Tel el Sheria. At first believing that he had been struck by enemy fire, he found that the engine switch outside his cockpit had turned off. Within 500 feet of the ground he was able to switch the engine back on and return to base. On 21 April 1917 Williams rescued a pilot forced down behind enemy lines, having the day before pressed home an attack on Turkish cavalry whilst under "intense anti-aircraft fire";^[8] these two actions earned him the Distinguished Service Order.^[9] He was promoted Major in May and given command of No. 1 Squadron, which re-equipped with Bristol Fighters later that year. In June 1918 he was made a temporary Lieutenant Colonel and commander of No. 40 Wing of the Royal Air Force's Palestine Brigade, comprising his own No. 1 Squadron and three British units. Twice Mentioned in Despatches, by the end of the war Williams had established himself, in the words of RAAF historian Dr Alan Stephens, as "the AFC's rising star".^[10]

[edit] Inter-war years

[edit] Birth of the Royal Australian Air Force

Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 New Year Honours,^[11] Williams served as Staff Officer, Aviation, at Australian Imperial Force (AIF) headquarters in London, before returning to Australia and taking up the position of Director of Air Services at Army Headquarters, Melbourne. The Australian Flying Corps had meanwhile been disbanded at the end of the war, replaced by the Australian Air Corps (AAC) which was, like the AFC, a branch of the Army.^[7][12]

The Air Board, pictured in 1928, including Air Commodore Williams (front row, centre) as Chief of the Air Staff (formerly First Air Member) and Group Captain Stanley Goble (front row, left)

Upon establishment of the Australian Air Board on 9 November 1920, Williams and his fellow AAC officers dropped their army ranks in favour of those based on the Royal Air Force, which had come into being two years earlier. Williams, now a Wing Commander, personally compiled and tabled the Air Board's submissions to create the Australian Air Force (AAF), a service independent of both the Army and the Royal Australian Navy. The AAF was duly formed on 31 March 1921, the 'Royal' prefix being added five months later.^[12][13] Williams proposed an ensign for the AAF in July 1921, based on the Royal Air Force flag but featuring the five stars of the Southern Cross within the RAF roundel and the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. However, this design was not adopted for the RAAF, the Government employing instead a direct copy of the RAF ensign until 1949, when a new design was chosen which included the stars of the Australian Flag.^[14]

As the senior officer of the Air Board, known as First Air Member, Williams moved to consolidate the new service's position by expanding its assets and training. Shortly after the AAF's establishment, land was purchased for an air base at Laverton, eight kilometres inland of Point Cook, and in July 1921, Williams made the initial proposal to develop a base at Richmond, New South Wales, the first outside Victoria. He also started a program to second students from the Army and Navy, including graduates of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, to bolster officer numbers; candidates reaped by this scheme included future Air Force chiefs John McCauley, Frederick Scherger, Valston Hancock, and Alister Murdoch.^[15][16] As a leader, Williams would gain a reputation for strong will, absorption in administrative minutiae and a "somewhat puritanical" nature.^[12] He became known throughout the service as "Dicky".^[4][10][17]

[edit] Chief of the Air Staff

The position of First Air Member was replaced by Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) in October 1922. Williams would serve as CAS three times over 17 years in the 1920s and 30s, alternating with Wing Commander (later Air Vice Marshal) Stanley Goble. One motive suggested for the rotation was a ploy by Army and Navy interests to "curb Williams' independence".^[18] Instead the arrangement "almost inevitably fostered an unproductive rivalry" between the two officers.^[12] Although in a legal sense the Air Board was responsible for the RAAF rather than the Chief of Staff alone, Williams dominated the board to such an extent that Goble would later complain that his colleague appeared to consider the Air Force his personal command.^[19]

Williams spent much of 1923 in England, attending the British Army Staff College in Camberley and RAF Staff College, Andover, followed by further study in Canada and the United States the following year. Goble acted as Chief of the Air Staff in his absence. Shortly after his return in February 1925, Williams scuppered a plan by Goble to establish a small seaplane base at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney, instead organising purchase of Supermarine Seagulls, the RAAF's first amphibious aircraft, to be based at Richmond.^[20][21] He was promoted to Group Captain in July and later that year drafted a major air warfare study, "Memorandum Regarding the Air Defence of Australia". Considered prescient in many ways, it treated World War I ally Japan as Australia's main military threat, and advocated inter-service cooperation while maintaining that none of the armed forces was "purely auxiliary to another". Its concepts continue to influence RAAF strategy.^[14][20]

Group Captain Williams (right) on his Pacific Islands flight in 1926

The young Air Force was a small organisation with the atmosphere of a flying club; however several pioneering flights were made by its members.^[22] Goble had commanded the first circumnavigation of Australia by air in 1924. In 1926, with two crew members, Williams made a three-month, 10,000-mile round trip from Point Cook to the Pacific Islands in a DH.50A floatplane to study the region as a possible theatre of operations. Though seen partly as a by-product of the Williams-Goble rivalry, it was notable as the first international flight undertaken by an RAAF plane and crew.^[23][24] Williams was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1927 King's Birthday Honours in recognition of the achievement,^[25] and promoted to Air Commodore the same year.^[4]

As CAS, Williams had to contend with serious challenges to the RAAF's continued existence from the Army and Navy in 1929 and 1932, arising from the competing demands for defence funding during the Great Depression. According to Williams, only after 1932 was the independence of the Air Force assured.^[26] Williams again handed over the reins of CAS to Goble in 1933 to attend the Imperial Defence College in London, resuming his position in June 1934. His promotion to Air Vice Marshal on 1 January 1935 belatedly raised him to the equivalent rank of his fellow Chiefs of Staff in the Army and Navy.^[4] He was made a Companion of the Bath in June that year.^[27]

Williams encouraged the local aircraft industry as a means to further the self-sufficiency of the Air Force and Australian aviation in general. He played a personal part in the creation of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in November 1936, headed up by former Squadron Leader Lawrence Wackett, late of the RAAF's Experimental Section.^[26]

In 1939 Williams was dismissed from his post as CAS and "effectively banished overseas", following publication of the Ellington Report in January.^[18] Its author, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Edward Leonard Ellington, criticised the level of air safety observed in the RAAF, though his interpretation of statistics has been called into question.^[28] The Federal Government praised Williams for strengthening the Air Force but blamed him for the findings, and he was criticised in the press.^[29] Beyond the adverse report, Williams was thought to have "made enemies" through his strident championing of the RAAF's independence.^[28] The government announced that it was seconding him to the RAF for two years.^[30]

[edit] World War II

Air Marshal Williams (right) as Air Officer Commanding RAAF Overseas HQ, England, 1941

When war broke out in September 1939, Williams was Air Officer in charge of Administration at RAF Coastal Command, a position he had held since February that year, following a brief posting to the British Air Ministry.^[27] Goble had succeeded Williams as Chief of the Air Staff for the last time but clashed with the Federal Government over implementation of the Empire Air Training Scheme and stepped down in early 1940. Williams was recalled from Britain with the expectation of again taking up the RAAF's senior position but Prime Minister Robert Menzies insisted on a British officer commanding the service, over the protest of his Minister for Air, James Fairbairn, and the RAF's Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett became CAS.^[31][32] In his official history of the Air Force in World War II, Douglas Gillison observed that considering Williams' intimate knowledge of the RAAF and its problems, and his long experience commanding the service, "it is difficult to see what contribution Burnett was expected to make that was beyond Williams' capacity".^[33] Williams was appointed Air Member for Organisation and Equipment and promoted to Air Marshal, the first man in the RAAF to achieve this rank.^[34]

Williams returned to England in October 1941 to set up RAAF Overseas Headquarters, coordinating services for the large number of Australians posted there.^[4] He maintained that Australian airmen in Europe and the Mediterranean should serve in RAAF units to preserve their national identity, as per Article XV of the Empire Air Training Scheme, rather than be integrated into RAF squadrons, but in practice most served in British units.^[35] Even nominally 'RAAF' squadrons formed under the Scheme were rarely composed primarily of Australians, and Williams' efforts to establish a distinct RAAF Group within Bomber Command, similar to the Royal Canadian Air Force's No. 6 Group, did not come to fruition.^[36] However Williams was able to negotiate improvements to conditions of RAAF personnel in Europe, including full Australian pay scales as opposed to the lower RAF rates that were offered initially.^[37]

When Air Chief Marshal Burnett completed his term in 1942, Williams was once more considered for the role of CAS. However this was vetoed by Prime Minister John Curtin and the appointment unexpectedly went to Acting Air Commodore George Jones.^[38] A mooted Inspector Generalship of the Air Force, which would have seen Williams reporting directly to the Minister for Air, also failed to materialise.^[39] Instead Williams was posted to Washington, D.C. as the RAAF's representative to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in the United States, and remained there until the end of the war.^[4]

[edit] Later career

Williams served as Australia's first Director-General of Civil Aviation, from 1946 to 1955

In 1946 Williams was forced into retirement despite being four years below the mandatory age of 60. All other senior RAAF commanders who were veteran pilots of World War I, with the exception of the-then Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, were also dismissed, ostensibly to make way for the advancement of younger officers. Williams regarded the grounds for his removal as "specious", calling it "the meanest piece of service administration in my experience".^[18]

Following retirement from the Air Force, Williams was appointed the first Director-General of Civil Aviation in Australia,^[40] serving in the position for almost 10 years. His department was responsible for the expansion of communications and infrastructure to support domestic and international aviation, establishing "an enviable safety record".^[4] Williams' tenure coincided with the beginnings of the government carrier Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) and introduction of the Two Airlines Policy,^[41] as well as construction of Adelaide Airport and redevelopment of Sydney Airport as an international facility.^[42]

William's wife Constance died in 1948 and he married Lois Victoria Cross on 7 February 1950. He was appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1954 New Year Honours,^[43] the year before he retired from the Director-Generalship of Civil Aviation. He then took up a place on the board of Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), forerunner of Air New Zealand.^[4] In 1977 Williams published his memoirs, These Are Facts, described in 2001 as "immensely important if idiosyncratic ... the only substantial, worthwhile record of service ever written by an RAAF chief of staff".^[12]

Sir Richard Williams died in Melbourne on 7 February 1980. He was accorded an Air Force funeral, with a flypast by seventeen aircraft.^[4]

[edit] Legacy

Williams' official RAAF portrait

For his stewardship of the Air Force prior to World War II, as well as his part in its establishment in 1921, Williams is considered the 'father' of the RAAF.^[7][12] Between the wars he continually strove for his service's status as a separate branch of the Australian armed forces, seeing off a number of challenges to its independence from Army and Navy interests.^[44] He remains the RAAF's longest-serving Chief, totalling thirteen years over three terms: October to December 1922; February 1925 to December 1932; and June 1934 to February 1939.^[45]

In his 1925 paper "Memorandum Regarding the Air Defence of Australia", Williams defined "the fundamental nature of Australia's defence challenge" and "the enduring characteristics of the RAAF's strategic thinking". Ignored by the government of the day, the study's operational precepts became the basis for Australia's defence strategy in the 1980s, which remains in place in the 21st Century.^[20]

Williams' legacy extends to the very look of the RAAF. He personally chose the colour of the Air Force’s winter uniform, a shade "somewhere between royal and navy blue", designed to distinguish it from the lighter Royal Air Force shade.^[47] Unique at the time among Commonwealth forces, it was changed to an all-purpose middle blue in 1972 but following numerous complaints in the ensuing years reverted to Williams’ original style in 2000.^[48][49]

Memorials to Williams include Sir Richard Williams Avenue, located at Adelaide Airport,^[50] and RAAF Williams in Victoria, established in 1999 after the merger of Australia's oldest air bases, Point Cook and Laverton.^[40]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Commonwealth of Australia (2007). The Australian Experience of Air Power. Tuggeranong, ACT: Air Power Development Centre. ISBN 190080014X. 
• Cutlack, F.M. [1923] (1941). The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 (11th edition): Volume VIII – The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914–1918. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. 
• Department of Defence. Williams, Richard – AIF Personnel File. National Archives of Australia.
• Garrisson, A.D. (1990). "Williams, Sir Richard (1890 - 1980)", Australian Dictionary of Biography: Volume 12. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. 
• Gillison, Douglas (1962). Australia in the War of 1939-1945: Series Three (Air) Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. 
• Helson, Peter (2006). "Ten Years at the Top". . University of New South Wales
• Herington, John (1954). Australia in the War of 1939-1945: Series Three (Air) Volume III – Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. 
• MacDougall, A.K. (2005). Australians at War: A Pictorial History. Rowville, Victoria: Five Mile Press. ISBN 1865038652. 
• McKernan, Michael (2006). The Strength of a Nation. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 174114714X. 
• Odgers, George (1984). The Royal Australian Air Force: An Illustrated History. Brookvale: Child & Henry. ISBN 0867773685. 
• Roylance, Derek (1991). Air Base Richmond. RAAF Base Richmond: Royal Australian Air Force. ISBN 0646052128. 
• Stephens, Alan (1995). Going Solo: The Royal Australian Air Force 1946-1971. Canberra: Aust. Govt. Pub. Service. ISBN 0644428031. 
• Stephens, Alan [2001] (2006). The Royal Australian Air Force: A History. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195555414. 

[edit] Further reading

• Williams, Sir Richard (1977). These Are Facts. Canberra: Aust. Govt. Pub. Service. ISBN 0642993998.