Richard Williams (officer)
Sir Richard Williams (born August 3, 1890 in Moonta , South Australia , † February 7, 1980 in Melbourne ) was the first commander of the Australian Air Force in the years from 1921 to 1939. He is therefore also regarded as the founding father of the RAAF .
Youth and First World War
Richard Williams was born as the eldest son of Richard and Emily Williams, the couple had emigrated from England. His father was a worker in a copper mine. After leaving public school, Williams began working as a telegraph lad and then as a bank clerk until he joined the military at age 19. In 1911 he became a lieutenant appointed 2nd class. Williams completed the military pilot training on February 12, 1914 as the first Australian, which the Australian Flying Corps, founded two years earlier, had given a total of four flight students. In July 1915 he completed advanced flight training. On August 21 of this year, he married Constance Esther Griffiths, 13 years his senior, in Melbourne . After volunteering, Captain Williams left Australia in March 1916 to take part in the First World War in Egypt . Under his leadership, the Australian pilots were brought together who had previously flown with British (or Commonwealth) pilots. In June 1918, Lieutenant Colonel Williams was commander of the 40th RAF squadron, which included four British squadrons in addition to his Australian.
Structure of the RAAF
After the war ended, Williams was appointed "Officer of the Order of the British Empire ". At the request of his superiors in the Australian Imperial Force , Williams stayed in London to make preparations for a newly formed Australian Air Force. He returned to Australia in 1920 and took part in the talks as a representative of the army. Major Stanley Goble represented the Navy as an aviation expert. Williams received generous support from the army - in particular, he was able to use the "Australian Air Corps" (AAC) army division founded in 1920 for his purposes - and was thus able to exert his influence. However, there were also disagreements with his superiors who wanted the new air force to return to the army. Williams, as the highest-ranking staff officer, appealed and demanded the creation of a new armed force alongside the army and navy. Premier Hughes supported these petitions and on March 31, 1921 the Australian Air Force (AAF) was formed. After the consent of King George V , it was renamed the Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF (about: Royal Australian Air Force) in August 1921.
Williams was the highest-ranking RAAF officer and was officially allowed to call himself Chief of Air Staff from 1922 onwards ("Chief of Staff of the Air Force"). As early as 1921, he established the first air force base near Richmond , on a site that had been used as a military flight school since 1916. He also recruited officers from other branches of service. However, his budget remained modest compared to the army and navy. The reasons for this were varied. He was considered young and inexperienced for a chief of staff, and given the low risk of war, the defense department's financial resources were low. Particularly serious was an agreement between the army and the navy that Williams and his deputy Goble should rotate regularly as chief of staff: the rivalry between the army and the navy was not well-rehearsed for a third branch of service and required constant balancing acts. This rotation was supposed to cause a long-lasting personal conflict with his deputy Goble, which quickly culminated in the two of them avoiding each other widely. Goble, who was chief of staff for only four years between 1921 and 1938, complained that Williams ran the RAAF like his own personal property. In fact, Williams had a decisive influence on the RAAF during the thirteen years in office, even the color of the uniforms was chosen by him.
During an almost two-year training trip to England, Canada and the USA in 1923/24, Goble flew around Australia in a seaplane. He also approved the construction of a seaplane base for the Navy near Sydney . From Williams' point of view, this meant a weakening of the Air Force, and after his return in 1925 he was able to prevent the plan with great effort and instead chose Richmond as the base for RAAF seaplanes. In the same year he wrote a concept study, according to which the branches of arms are not only intended for the respective support. Furthermore, he already saw Japan as a possible opponent of war. In 1926 Williams forced the purchase of parachutes and jumped himself. At the end of 1926, Williams flew from Melbourne to the Solomon Islands to get a strategic overview of the Pacific as a possible battlefield. For this long-haul flight he received the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire the following year. In 1927, like before him, he circled Goble, Australia.
During the Great Depression between 1929 and 1932, Williams fended off attempts by politics to abolish the air force, thereby strengthening the RAAF's independence in the long term. On January 1, 1935, he received the rank of Air Vice Marshal (Vice Air Marshal) and was now equal to the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Navy. In the following years he and Defense Secretary Sir Archdale Parkhill supported the Australian aviation industry with assignments. A series of accidents in the late 1930s eventually put Williams under public pressure. From 1939 the government transferred him to the RAF in England for two years, where he was to undergo further training.
Second World War
When World War II broke out, Williams was in Great Britain in command of the RAF Coastal Command , the amphibious arm of the RAF. Goble, Williams' successor as chief of staff of the RAAF, resigned in 1940 and Williams was ordered back to Australia. At the request of Prime Minister Robert Menzies , however, the British Charles Burnett Gobles succeeded, while Williams was promoted to Air Marshal and tasked with organizing the air defense. In 1941 he returned to England again and stood up for Australian pilots who, contrary to the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, received lower English salaries and flew in mixed instead of national squadrons.
Burnett left the RAAF in 1942, and Williams once again raised his hopes for the post of Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In its place, the new prime minister appointed John Curtin , however, George Jones , and Williams was as a liaison officer to Washington, DC off.
Post-war career
In 1946, Williams (along with many other World War I veterans) was given early retirement, deeply hurting him. Instead, he was offered a civilian career as Director General of Civil Aviation. Williams held this office from 1946 to 1955, which coincided with the beginning of the two-airline strategy and the state-owned Trans Australia Airlines , as well as the construction of the airports in Adelaide and Sydney . In 1955 he became a board member of Tasman Empire Airways Limited , a forerunner of Air New Zealand .
In 1948, Williams' first wife, Constance, died. On February 7, 1950, he married Lois Victoria Cross . In 1954 he was knighted and received the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire . His memoirs appeared in 1977 under the title These are Facts .
Sir Richard Williams died on February 7, 1980 at the age of 90 in Melbourne with no descendants. He was buried with military honors.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Williams, Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian military, first in command of the Australian Air Force, "founding father" of the RAAF |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 3, 1890 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Moonta , South Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 7, 1980 |
| Place of death | Melbourne |